Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-07-16


the early winter and the construction
of some form of barrier about harvest
time are recommended by the depart
ment as the most satisfactory meth
DDS OF controlling the chinch bug.
This pest is declared to be one of
if not the worst insect enemies that
the American grain farmer has to
combat. ii is SAID, indeed, that if it
were not for an occasional season OF
heavy rains at the right moment the
chinch bug would make it altogether
Improbable to raise grain year after
year on the same areas. Drenching
rains during the Matching season.
however, prove fatal the young and
such wet periods are sufficiently ire
quent to keep the numbers of the pest
| within bounds.
There are two forms OF the chinch
bug, known, respectively, as the long
winged form occurs along the sea-
coast and inland along the lower
lakes to northern Illinois. The long
winged form is found all over the
country east of the Rocky Mountains
and is especially abundant in the mid
die west, the section which suffers the
most from the chinch bug.
The long winged chinch bug has
two generations a year, while il is
doubtful whether the shortening has
one or two. The adult insects pass
the winter under clumps of broom
sedge, matted grass, leaves. or in fact
any convenient form of waste vegc-
tation, from which they emerge in
the spring to deposit their eggs in
nearby grain fields. When the young
4, t-I, hax ~1t tar
on the plants and begin at once to
feed upon the juices. Shortly after
midsummer this first genration have
become adults and deposit their eggs
in turn. When these eggs are hatch
ed the young fasten on corn, millet,
kaffir and similar crops.
To control the pest, therefore,
new publication of the department,
Farmers Bulletin No. 657, The
Chinch Bug recommends in the
first place the cleaning up of all fence
rows and roadsides. and the burning
during winter of grass and rubbish
about the farm. This not only de-
stroys large numbers of the bugs but
winter, so that where the work is
thoroughly done comparatively few
will survive to the breeding season.
In the fall or spring green or wet
grass will shelter certain proportion
of the bugs from the fire, so it is i'm
portant that the burning be done in
the early winter.
Where this precaution has been
neglected or where the negligence OF
a neighbor has exposed farmer to
loss through no fault of his own,
there may be about midsummer a
great migration of the bugs from the
wheat to the corn field. This presents
another favorable opportunity to de-
barriers are in use to turn the invad
ing army aside. One of the most
satisfactory of these is said to be the
coal-tar line, supplemented with post
holes. The bugs will not cross the
coal tar, and moving along the line
OF the barrier fall or are crowded by
other bugs into the postholes, where
they can be killed at will>As the bugs
mass along the line of coal tar they
present an appearance not unlike
reddish-brown stream running into
the postholcs. This method has
been found thoroughly practical. 1t
is important, however, especially in
dusty weather, to keep the coal-tar
line fresh, for as soon as il is covered
with dirt the bugs can pass over it
without difficulty. If coal tar is not
available petroleum or road oil may
be substituted.
Another method is to plow fur
row around the field to be protected
with side so steep that the bugs can
not crawl out of it. In the case
of showery weather when the sides
of the furrow can not be kept loose
and dry, the bottom can be cleaned
out with shovel, making the sides