42 The Bulletin. 



I send you under separate cover a bottle of bugs that are destroying the 

 corn crop in this township. Please let me know what they are and if there 

 is any remedy for them. 



REPLY. 



* * * It is the Sugar-cane Beetle, which is regularly destructive in 

 Louisiana, but of which I have never had any complaint during the four years 

 I have been in this State. As its name indicates, it is known primarily as 

 a pest of the sugar-cane. * * * a most careful search of the literature 

 fails to reveal any reference to remedies which have been found effectual, and 

 I guess we must put it among those (pests) against which we have little or 

 no means of defense. It has been suggested that the beetles are attracted to 

 lights, and I would suggest that you hang a brightly burning lantern in your 

 cornfield suspended over a pan in which is tar, or water and kerosene. 



* * * Now this will be an experiment merely. I am not even sure that 

 it will attract a single one of the insects, but I think that the test will be 

 well worth making. * * * Please also try to give me some information 

 on the following points: (1) How many years have you known this pest? 

 (2) How long has it been with you this season? (3) Where and how does it 

 attack the plant (living specimens with plant would furnish best answer)? 

 (4) How abundant is it in the fields — how many at each hill on an average? 



* * * Any observations that you can make, or specimens that you can 

 obtain, bearing on the life-history or habits of the insect will be of interest 

 and value. (June 4, 1904.) 



Dr. Credle's next letter was dated June 9, 1904, and was as follows : 



* * * I have tried the lantern and water and kerosene, also the tar, but 

 had no success; did not get a dozen bugs in three nights. These bugs first 

 appeared here last year about the middle of May, and after the first big rain 

 we had they disappeared. They returned this season, first of April, and are 

 here yet and very numerous, from eight to ten to the hill of corn. I send you. 

 under separate cover, bugs with a sample of the different sizes of corn and 

 cotton that they are at work on. * * * You will notice they do their 

 work right at the root, and they can kill corn any size. The outlook is that 

 they are going to be the most destructive pest that we have ever had. Hope 

 there may be some way to destroy them. 



REPLY. 



* * * I would like to make a few other suggestions as to remedies, and 

 if you find it convenient to try them I hope you will report results: (1) the 

 sprinkling of a little wood-ashes about the base of the plants, say a handful 

 to each hill; (2) same, using air-slacked lime; (3) pine sawdust, which 

 should be fresh enough to have a strong tar or pitch odor. If you try any of 

 these methods I would advise that you use them only on a small scale, as it 

 will likely prove useless in any case, and it would scarcely be advisable for 

 you to go to any great trouble in a mere experiment. (June 11, 1904.) 



Dr. Credle's next letter is dated June 14, 1904, and from it the follow- 

 ing is taken: 



* * * I am still of the impression that they are dry-weather bugs. The 

 part of the township (where) they are doing the worst damage there has 

 been no rain since March. There has not been enough rain since the first 



