REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 151 



That timothy may be injured by the clover caterpillar seems to have 

 been hitherto unknown, and that its range of food may be still further 

 extended through future observations is not at all improbable, from the 

 mention made by Prof. Webster that large numbers of the moths had been 

 seen in June, in Ohio, about straw stacks and straw sheds. 



Clover-hay also Injured by Another Pyralid. 



In 1893, Prof. Osborn, of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 reports that this insect attracted considerable attention in the State 

 during that year. And what is more interesting, he found that not all 

 the injury could be attributed to Pyralis costalis, but that in some cases 

 the injury had been caused by Pyralis farinalis {loc. cii.). 



Remedies and Preventives. 



Prof. Riley recommended for arresting the increase of the insect, 

 I. That as the caterpillars feed only on old hay, the new should never 

 be placed in contact with the old. If stowed in a bay, all refuse and 

 waste of the old should be first removed and destroyed. 2. If possible, 

 the hay should be stacked so as to permit free circulation of air beneath 

 it, for the prevention of moisture that seems to invite attack. 3. Salt the 

 hay, especially the lower two or three feet of the stack or mow. 



The only experiment for destroying the insect when discovered at work 

 in hay, is, we believe, that made by Prof. Webster. About five tons weight 

 of badly infested hay was taken from a stack, and while being restacked, 

 was thoroughly dusted with a mixture of ten pounds of pyrethrum powder 

 mixed with fifty pounds of flour. The following day a small quantity of 

 the hay thus treated was examined, and most of the larvae were found to 

 have been destroyed. The entire stack was not given the examination 

 thereafter that was promised, and the experiment therefore failed of being 

 conclusive of the efficacy of the pyrethrum application. 



With this insect, as with many others, a preventive of attack is the 

 desideratum. Hay once infested to any considerable extent is so defiled 

 by the excrement of the caterpillars, and it seems also, by an accom- 

 panying mold, as to be wholly unfit for feeding to stock. 



When it is learned where the egg-deposits are made — w^hether in the 

 field or in the garnered hay, and their inviting causes or conditions — 

 we may be able to announce an effective preventive. 



