The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-14

uSllC IuIlBl, WHICH,, unutT ldNbIdblc tlt
cumstances, destroy them wholesale.
literally eating them up. For some
years past distinguished Kansas en-
tomoogist, Prof. Snow, has been en-
gagged in propagating these humble but
destructive plants for the purpose of
injecting healthy chinch-bugs with
fatal malady. He has widely advet,is-
&c proposal to exchange sick chinch-
bugs, for well ones, the latter, as fast
as they arrive being infected with the
deadly complaint by placing them to-
gcther with insects already diseased.
The sickened bugs are sent in tin boxes
through the mail to farmers who scat
ter them in the infested fields. In this
way the greedy insect hordes are 50
inoculated with the horrible complaint
and so perish by wholesale.
There has been devised recently ali
important Improvement on this plan
by which the disease-fungas is propl-
gated artifcially in a mixture of corn
meal and beef soup. The spores of the
plant, being stirred up in the mixture
aforesaid, quickly germinate, and the
result is the production of Infection
producing material. This substance is
very much more convenient to handle
than moribund insects, and it may he
scattered over field with far greater
case and convenience.
The effectiveness of this plan for
communicating plague to chinch-bugs
artficially has been much questioned
but Prof Webster and other scientists
today pretty generally admit that 1t
accomplishes wonderful results. In a
field oc wheat that has been treated in
the manner described, the track of the
insects as they move in any direction
is literally paved with their dead bodies,
each little corpse enveloped in a white
winding sheet of fungus. In places the
ground is white with them, and, on
stirring uD the soil at the edge of a
corn field, it is found to be full of dead
chinch-bugs to a depth of two or three
inches, the white fungus bod
les contrasting strongly with the black
color of the rich loam Nevertheless, it
seems that the fungus has little effect
except where the insects are very thick
so as to make cOntagion easy. Further
more. it requires moist weather for its
| maximum efficiency.
METHODS OF RELIEF.
There ought to be q central propa-
eating station for the disease fungus,
from which farmers could obtain
promptly an abundant supply" says
Prof Webster. Farmers also should
watch the seasons carefully, and when
there are two dry summers in success
sion every preventive measure should
| be adOpted-nOtably the burning of
leaves, dead grass and other rubbish
during winte" or early spring, followed
up by sowing small plats of early mil
| let, Hungarian grass or spring wheat
in low damp places in the fields, with
a view of attracting the females and
massing the bugs, and then freely APP
plying the fungus in their midst
| One very effective method OF fighting
| chinch- bugs is to lay line of fresh
! coal tar as a barrier between a migrat-
| ing horde and the field which they are
| advancing to attack. The line, poured
| from the nozzle of a watering pot with
| the sprinkler removed needs to be only
three-quarters of an inch wide, and at
| intervals of twenty feet in its length
are dug holes. in which tin cans are
| sunk. The insects proceed along the
| tar line until they fall into the cans,
| where they are easily killed with little
| kerosene. In this way the bugs are
| caught literally by the bushel.
Chinch- bugs are essentially gregari-
| ous gathering and feeding together in
| fiocks. On reaching a suitable field OF
| grain. they congregate upon the stalks
until the latter are literally covered
with the insects, varying in color from
| the black-and white adults to the diff
| ferently tinted larvae. Only the winged
| adults fly away, the main body of less
| developed bugs remaining and leaving
| in a body only when the plants on
which they have cOngregated have been
| drained of their juices and have begun
| to wither. Then they simply crawl to
| the nearest healthy plants and begin
| work on them. A general migration by
| flight takes place in the autumn.
DIET OF THE DESTROYERS.
| FavOrite articles of chnch- bug diet
are broom corn sorghum, Bermuda
| grass. blue grass, bottle grass and crab
| grass. over the western country the
| major portion of the damage done is to
| fields of wheat barley, rye and corn
| Oats are rarely attacked The female
chinch-bug deposits her eggs about the
| roots of grasses and grain-plants In
| early days the insect doubtless subsist-
| eu Oll lHt ndllNe SIuSStS, nut II readily
| acquired taste for exotic kinds Last
| summer EntOmOlogist- in chief Howard
| of the Department of Agriculture found
| chinch- bugs in the act of destroyine
| the lawn in a Brooklyn park In 1891
| an assistant of Prof. Howard's colleCte 1
| chinch-bugs from coarse grass. incrust-
| ed with a salty deposit, in the Colorado
| desert of California. This locality is
| considerably below the ocean level, and
| represents an ancient extension of the
| Gulf of California.
| The immunity of the chinch- bug
from attacks by natural enemies is so
| striking that il has attracted the at
| tentiOn of all entOmOlOgists who have
| made study of the species, and all
| accept this as indicating that it is an
/ exotic, not originally belonging To our
| insect fauna. Professor Websters
| theory is that the bug is of tropical
| seaShore origin, and worked it's way
| northward centuries ago by way of the
| east coast of Central America. APP
| parently the chinch-bug occupied the
most OF the country prior to its occu
| pancy by the white man, and its first
| depredatons We're caused by it's com
ing i'm contact with the advance of civ
| ilization. Not until within the last ff-
teen years has the chinch- bug been
known to work serious and widespread