The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-03-19

correspondence OF 1ne Progressive Farnef.
A reader of The Progressive Far
mer has written to the writer asking
him to give an account of the Hes
sian Fly, which he reports as having
destroyed about one half of his wheat
on a field sowed in the middle of o.
tober, last.
The Hessian fly, (Cectdomyta de-
strWctOr), is a small fly of smoky
brown color, somewhat like mos
quito in general appearance. It is
the worst insect enemy to wheat, it's
nearest rival being the chinch bug,
which is not nearly so destructive in
this State. The Hessian fly occurs
in damaging numbers from eastern
South Dakota to eastern Texas in
the West, and from southeastern
Maine to northern Georgia in the
East. The area here roughly indi-
Gated includes the western part of
North Carolina, approximately that
part which would be west of a line
drawn from Henderson in the north
through Hamlet in the south.
There are two destructive broods
each year, one in the fall, and the
other in the spring. The adult
female fly lays her eggs on the lower
leaves of the wheat, and the maggots
which hatch from the eggs descend
beneath the leaf sheaths and work
around the stalks, where they feed
on the juices of the injured tissue of
the plant. This so much weakens
the plant that when it starts to grow
in the spring, it breaks near the
ground, and is thus destroyed. The
eggs deposited by the brood of flies
which appears in the fall, hatch into
maggots which attain full growth by
the time the winter sets in. They
now transform to the pupa state, in
which no food is taken. At this
time the insect is inCased in a hard,
dry skin of brown color, and in this
stage it is often called the lax
seed" on account of it's size and APP
pearance. This stage is passed
through under the leaf sheaths
around the joints or nodes of the
stalk. This is sometimes mistaken
for the egg stage of the insect. There
may be several of these "fax seeds
around one stalk, and my CORE
spondent sent some that contained as
many as six or eight. It is in this
state that the winter is passed, and
the flies are developed and emerge
in the spring.
Insects do not grow after the adult
stage is reached, and with the Hes
sian fly, the main purpose of life,
after the adult stage is attained, is
to provide for the perpetuation of
the species. In accomplishing this
object it seems to be very success
full. The maggOts from the spring
brood are full grown by harvest, and
are in the "fax seed stage at the
time that the wheat is cut, and as
this stage is passed near the ground,
they are left in the stubble. Some
flies may be found at almost any
time through the summer but the
main part Of the brood does not
emerge till fall, when the flies lay
their eggs on the growing wheat.
Three remedies may be considered {:
First, burn stubble Immediately
after harvest.
Second, plow the stubble under
Immediately after harvest.
Third, delay sowing as late as pos
sible in the fall.
By either the first or second meth
ods with the third, the best results
will be obtained. The object of
burning or plowing is to kill those
insects that are in the ''fax seed" :"
stage in the stubble, and the object
of late planting is to have the wheat
come up after the fall brood of flies
is gone, thus lodging them.
The name of Hessian fly was ap-
piled to this species after its appear
ance in New York in 1878, presuma-
bly for the reason that it was sup
posed to have been brought to this
country in straw furnished to the
Hessian troops, during the war Of
the Revolution.
The writer will be pleased to learn
from the readers of The Progressive
Farmer of any outbreaks Of injurious
insects.
FRANKLIN SHERMAN, JR.
Entomologist Dept of Agriculture,
Raleigh, N. G.