Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-06-24

attached to the person in walking
through vegetation, it has been found,
according to the bulletin, that sift-
ing flowers of sulphur into the under
clothes from a little above the knee,
downward and into the shoes and
stockings, is effective. Napthalene has
been successfully used in the same
manner, and is considered a safeguard
against several forms of man-infesting
tropical insect pests.
If a person has been exposed to an
attack Of harvest mites, an applica-
ton to the affected parts of a moder-
ately strong solution of ammonia is
possibly the best counter-irritant. BIZ
carbonate of soda or common cooking
soda, or saleratus may be substituted
in saturated solution. Similar al
kaIine solutions would probably also
serve in counteracting the insect poi
son, which is acid. In case the suffer
ing is severe, dilute tincture of iodine
or collodion should be lightly applied.
Eliminating the Mites.
Where a large tract is to be freed
of the pest, such as lawns, country
grounds, pathways, roadsides, the
method recommended by the bulletin
is to keep the grass closely cut, the
weeds eliminated and useless heritage
moved so as to expose the mites to
the sun. In some cases it may be prac-
teal to spray the grass and other
plants after cutting with flowers of
sulphur or a dilute spray of kerosene
emulsion, in which sulphur has been
mixed.
Grasses bordering on ponds fire.
quented by cattle, wild blackberry
bushes and similar plants, should be
cut down and destroyed in the vicinity
of houses where people are liable to
be infested by the mites by passing
through them. Cattle, sheep and goats
have often been used successfully in
keeping down the grass and other
vegetable growth which harbors CHG
gers.
On large estates chiggers may be
effectively eliminated by the use of
sulphur in dust blowers such as are
used for busting crops with insecti-
eide powder, or by one Of the large
sulphur busters used IN spraying or
ange trees or hops for red spider.
These sprayers are capable of throw
ing fan-shaped discharge about eight
feet wide and effect an even and thor
ough distribution. The cost of appli-
cation, allowing so pounds of sulphur
to the acre, would be 81 to $3.50 per
acre. One man and a team will
cover in a day 80 to 40 acres
so that the cost of application is not
great. The buster costs from SOS to
$50.
Not q True Inject.
Harvest mites are not true insects,
but belong to the class of spiders,
ticks and the like. The mature mite
wanders about feeding on aphides,
small caterpillars, and in the case of
one species, on the eggs of grasshop-
pers or loeUsts. This species hiber-
mates in the soil, or other sheltered
locations, and in the spring deposits
its eggs, there being only one genera
ton produced in a year. The eggs are
laid in the ground, sometimes as
many as 400 in one place. They are
usually brown and spherical When
the larya, which is microscopic, blood
red, and shaped somewhat like COM
mon tick, matches, it is circular or
ovoid in outline, and each of its three
pairs Of legs is tipped with two or
three prominent claws. After the
Iarva has become attached to it's in
sect host it grows rapidly, and when
full fed, seeks convenient shelter
to change its shape without melting.
Within a few weeks it energies a full
grown chigger or mite of different
shades of red, and with eight legs, in
stead of six, as found on the larva.