The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1901-10-01
HESSIAN FLY AT WORK.

On September % the Hessian fly was
found busily at work laying its eggs |
on the experimental sowings of wheat |
made at the Ohio Experiment Station, |
Sept. l, and IA. On the latest sown
wheat, the plants of which consisted of
single spear, three to four inches
high, practically every plant carried
from one to a dozen eggs. On the ear
lier sowings the eggs were not quite so
abundant, especially on that of Sept. l.
1t is extremely desirable that more
thorough observations be made upon
this insect than have ever yet been re-
ported, especially with regard to its
appearance and disappearance in vari-
Gus localities, and the Experiment Sta
tion urges that such observations be at
once undertaken throughout all that
portion of the State where the fly may
not yet have finished its work.
The Hessian fly is a minute insect,
somewhat resembling a mosquito, but
considerably smaller. The abdomen
of the female is extended into a long,
slender ovipositor, and when engaged
in egg laying she flies from the ground
to the plant, deposits one or more eggs,
an operation requiring but fraction
of minute, then to the ground and
soon to another plant. The eggs, which
are only barelp visible to the unaided
eye, are reddish in color, several times
as long as wide, and are deposited end
to end in the minute creases of the
young wheat blade, usually ON the up
,per or inward side. They are said to
hatch in four to ten days, owing to the
is needed on this point. They are SC
small that glass magnifying to
diameters is necessary to satisfactory
examination. A suitable pocket lens
in rubber case can be purchased of any
> optician for so to Is cents.
1t would seem probable that sharI
frost, occurring while the eggs are ex
posed, would prevent their Matching
but no observation seems ever to have
been made on this point.
Care must be taken not to confuse tn,
;, Hessian fly with gnat-like plant louise
: which is often found fixed on the whea
= blade with its sharp proboscis insertet
into the blade, from which it is suckin,
the sap. These are not usually suff
iciently numerous to cause any materia
injury, but some of them are about tn
! size of the fly. Their rounded abdo
!, men and sluggish action serve to dis
tin guish them readily from the slender
active flies.
5 In neighborhoods where occasions
W fields of wheat have been sown the file
'e will probably have expended all thei
egg laying energies upon these and
= will now be safe to SOW the geners
~ crop: but where everybody has delaye
&c sowing the risk may be greater, for W
u do not know how long the fly is able t
ID hold her eggs, waiting for the farme
II to provide a suitable place for then.
" Where wheat is as badly infested 6
are the experimental sowings at tn
Station it would be wise to plow unde
and sow again; for such wheat will NJ
only be almost destroyed, but it wi
serve to carry over host of the we
known "flax Seeds of the fly, frol
which a new brood will emerge ne,
spring to continue the destructiy
work.
The Experiment Station urges th'
careful observations be made all ovt
ad the State on the points above indicates
Il and the results reported to it at Woo
" ter.
ht CHAS. E. THORNE, Director.