The Washington times., 1901-09-01
The HESSIAN FLY COMM G
A Prediction That the Insect Will
Invade the United States.
Steps to BE Taken to Prevent Serious
Damage to the Grain Crops of the
Western Sectional Government
EntomoIogist Discusses the Subject


Damage to the Grain Crops of th'
Western Sectional Government m
EntomoIogist Discusses the subjec
One of the scientists of the Agricul-
tural Department is authority for the
statement that the United States is tc
be invaded by the Hessian fly. THE
Hessian fly is still very much alive,
said the expert yesterday, "and II Is
much more formidable than the extinct
warrior whose terrors mainly consisted
of a bearskin hat and whiskers dyed
with shoe backing Both, however, are
said to have made their appearance in
this country simultaneously, and hence
the name of the fly. Our farmers OF
that time, finding their crops devastated
by a pest till then unknown, came at
once to the conclusion that King George
had sent the two plaques, human and
chronological, over the sea together.
Ever since that day, much contro-
versy has ragged in this country and
Germany as to the original home of the
destructive creature. One school of
disputants maintains hotly that the
Hessian fly, which now abounds in
parts of France, Austria. and Russia,
is native of the Old World, and that
its first home coincided with that of
our primitive cereals, Southern Europe
and Western Asia. Another school anx-
ious to make the enemy out an Ameri-
can citizen contends that it is an abo-
riginal inhabitant of the United States.
Be that as it may. the fact remains that
at the present day the fly is found in
both hemispheres in too great abund-
ance, and that in this country in par
ticular it has, In certains disastrous
years, almost ruined the entire wheat
crop.
IF it succeeds in getting in its work
this time, it will about complete the
destruction already wrought in the
wheat districts by the hot weather.
Il have seen whole fields upon fields
simply pillaged by its ravages. The loss
produced by this insignificant little
creature has, indeed, in some seasons
been measured by many millions of dol
lars
The Hessian fly belongs to the same
quito. 1t flies about in September just
as the fall crop is coming up. and lays
its eggs. Although its average life
time III the adult winged stage seems
TO be only about five days for the fe-
males, and a good deal less for the
males, the power of the former for lay
ing eggs is prodigious. One Industrious
female was observed to lay no fewer
than $50 eggs on six distinct plants,
while another laid eighty on a single
leaf. Many other cases have been not
ed in detail, and all show an astonish-
ingly Nigh level of maternity.
THE eggs are extremely minute. and
are pale orange in color, with reddish
dots. Most of them are deposited on
the leaf itself, or on the sheath or tube
which forms its lower portion.
THE insect lays her eggs with the
head end DOWN. ard; and as soon as the
tiny grub matches, which it does about
the fourth day, It emerges from the
shell and walks straight down toward
the stem, at the point where the pro-
tecting leaf-sheath is wrapped closely
round it. The worm forces itself in be-
tween the stem and the sheath, and af-
ter walking steadily for four hours, at
the end of which time 1t has covered a
record space of nearly three inches, it
arrives at the joint where the sheath
begins, and so finds its way blocked by
the thin partition wall; il can get no
further. Here, then, the young grub
stops, wedged tightly in between the
leaf-sheath and the stem, and with its
head pointing downward. Being hum,
CRY, and, therefore industrious. crea-
ture, 1t at once sets to work to eat the
plant. This il does by fixing its suck
er-like mouth on the soft, sweet. and
juicy portion of the stem, from which
1t extracts the life of the plant. So
that, after a very short time, the en-
feebled stem begins to bend a little
distance above the point where the grub
is devouring 1t. 1t has been undermine
ed. and its vitality sapped, so it gives
way at once near the source of the in
jury.
The Hessian fly has its own enemies
that prey upon it just as it preys upon
the barley, and it is by utilizing this
circumstance that We have been en-
abled in the past, as we viii probably
in the future, 10 counteract, in great
measure, the depredations of the de-
structive insect.
''Ichneumon flies and other parasites
prey by millions on the Hessian fly in
its grub condition. 1t is curious TO
watch one of these eounteracting in
sects at work. 1t alights on a stalk of
wheat or barley infested by grubs of
the Hessian fly, and walks slowly
along it, tapping gently as she goes,
much as a woodpecker taps with his
bin on a tree-trUnk, to discover a spot
where II worm lies buried. After care
fully examining the surface, she finds
a place where something, either in the
sound or the feeling of the stem, re-
veals the presence of a Hessian fly
grub within the leaf-sheath. Having
accurately diagnosed the spot dixie a
doctor with a stethoscope), she brings
where the grub is lying snug in its
green bed, and pierces the hard leaf
blade with her sharp little lancet.
There she lays her egg in the body of
the larva. This egg gives rise in time
to parasitic grub, inside the first one;
and the parasite eats out his hosts
body. and emerges in due time as
fuil-grown fly, ready to carry on the
same cycle in future.
More than nine-tenths OF the Hes
sian fly grubs hatched out in America
are thus destroyed by parasites before
they reach maturity; and it seems like
ly that the surest way of fighting in