330 



MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



on the ground and another collection made. When the grasshoppers 

 are not numerous enough to make this method perfectly satisfactory, the 

 pan is sometimes filled with kerosene and the back covered with kerosene. 

 The most successful method of fighting grasshoppers now seems to 

 be by the use of what is known as the "Criddle mixture." This mixture 

 is made in the following way : To a barrel of fresh horse manure thor- 

 oughly mix a pound of s"alt and two pounds of Paris green, or one 

 pound of powdered arsenic. If this mixture is made of perfectly fresh 

 horse manure the salt may be omitted, but if the horse droppings are 

 not perfectly fresh, the salt must be added. This Criddle mixture, so 

 called, should be placed in handfuls about the corn field where the 

 grasshoppers are doing the most mischief, and it will attract them for 

 several feet. They will feed upon it in preference to any other known 

 substance, and will be killed by the arsenic, which has been thoroughly 

 mixed with it. This same Criddle mixture is, of course, valuable in 

 connection with other plants that are being injured by these insects. 



THE ANGOUMOIS GRAIN MOTH. 

 Sitotroga cerealla, Oliv. 



This minute moth is well known to all corn raisers on account of 

 its injury to corn and wheat while in the field, as well as to the grain 

 while stored in the granary. The insect was originally an imported one, 

 having come from the Province of Angoumois, France, where its injuries 



are well known. It has now 

 spread throughout practically 

 all of the grain-growing re- 

 gions of the United States. 

 Two years ago it seemed to 

 be unusually abundant in the 

 southwestern part of Missouri, 

 and a great many inquiries, 

 with specimens of the insect 

 and its work, were received 

 by me at that time. 



The adult moth is a small, 

 grayish-brown insect, about half an inch across its expanded wings. The 

 hind wings are beautifully bordered with long delicate hairs. The insect 

 is represented in figure 69, c, enlarged about three diameters, the hair 

 line just below indicating its natural size. The moths emerge in spring 

 from granaries and other places where seed and grain has been stored, 



PiK. fi!). — Tho Angoumois Grain Moth, .S'lVo- 

 Inuin vncnilo; a, larva; h, pupa; c, adult moth ; 

 d. wmik; e, v^k: f. Inrva within grain. Tho linos 

 noar each figuro inflic-alo its natural si55(> most 

 fiKuns bring iiilargid. (From Howard, U S 

 I>( pt. Agric. ) 



