246 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



against danger from the pests, and yet not subjected to a temperature 

 which largely increases the cost of storing them. Experiments were 

 detailed covering a large number of insects, with the results about as fol- 

 lows: as against the ordinary clothes moths, Tinea species, a temperature 

 of 40 degrees is sufficient to prevent injury ; as against the species of At- 

 tagenus a temperature of 44 degrees is sufficient. The same temperature 

 will serve against the species of Trogoderma. Against Dermestes vul- 

 pinus a temperature of 45 degrees will suffice. It seems, then, that a 

 temperature from 40 to 42 degrees will be sufficient to check develop- 

 ment in those insects that ordinarily infest household goods and clothing, 

 and keeping them at a temperature below freezing simply increases the 

 cost without adding anything to the benefit. It is suggested that it would 

 be a good plan in every case, to treat the articles to be protected with 

 super-heated steam to make certain that no life remains in them, at the 

 time they go into the storage rooms. After that, a temperature of 40 

 degrees will be absolutely safe. 



Mr. F. M. Webster gave the results of " A three years' study of an 

 outbreak of the chinch bug in Ohio." By means of maps Mr. Webster 

 showed the distribution of this insect for the three years last past. Prior 

 to 1895 there could hardly be said to have been a chinch bug invasion in 

 Ohio, although they had appeared to some extent the year previous. The 

 invasion of 1896, however, though it was not a very serious one, was the 

 worst which had ever visited them, and at least two farmers committed 

 suicide on account of the losses they saw staring them in the face. The 

 Station had made preparations for distributing the chinch bug disease on 

 a large scale, and some 1200 applications were received and honored. The 

 season of 1896 was an ideal one for the development of the disease and 

 during the early part of the year it was also a favorable one for the spread 

 of the chinch bug. That is to say, the weather early in the season favored 

 the spread and effectiveness of the disease. The result was, that while 

 injury to wheat was severe in some sections, yet injury to corn was almost 

 entirely prevented. A curious point in the invasion was that it covered 

 territory on the whole entirely different from that which was covered by 

 the invasion of 1896, while this in turn covered counties which were not 

 infested in 1894. Therefore, for three years last past, the chinch bug has 

 infested each year different portions of the State ; although there arc a few 

 localities that have suffered two or three years in succession. Mr. Web- 

 ster says as a result of his experiments and observations, that in a year 

 like the present, when the weather conditions are favorable, the chinch 

 bug disease will prove useful to a certain extent ; but he is also fully con- 

 vinced that unless the weather conditions are favorable the disease is en- 

 tirely unreliable. His results in this particular agreeing with those that 

 had been reached by Prof. Forbes of Illinois. 



Mr. Perkins stated that he had known the chinch bug to be injurious 

 for five years in certain sections in Vermont. They cover only a small 

 territory and were to be found there in troublesome numbers each year. 



