SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 655 



for other contact sprays may be found in the spraying calendars. None 

 of the sprays or other direct methods are practicable for field crops 

 except in unusual cases. The cultural methods are much more important 

 here. Cut worms, of which there are many species of various colors, 

 are the larvae of certain night flying moths. Most of them spend the 

 winter in the ground. This fact enables us to hold them in check by 

 fall plowing, which exposes them to their enemies and to freezing. 

 "Wire worms, which are the larvae of the click beetle, and white grubs 

 which are the larvae of the big May beetles, commonly seen early 

 summer evenings, are amenable to the same treatment. The corn 

 ear worm, the larvae of a moth so often found in the ears of sweet 

 corn, spends the winter in the ground and readily yields to fall plowing. 

 The corn root louse is unable to re-enter the ground if turned up with a 

 plow late in the fall. This little insect lives upon the rcots of corn, 

 sucking the juices, thus giving the plant a sickly appearance. It is 

 especially interesting because of its relationship to certain ants which 

 distribute it from plant to plant. The Vouse receives this transportation 

 and careful protection from the ant, and in return secretes honey dew 

 for the ants to live upon. The chintz bug has always occurred in the 

 east but never in sufficient numbers to become a pest, as it has in the 

 middle west. Dry weather favors it and damp, warm weather checks 

 it; that is, damp weather favors the spread of a fungus disease which 

 is one of the main factors in controlling its abundance, while dry 

 weather retards it. This disease is the cause of the sudden disappear- 

 ance of bugs at times. Attempts to distribute it have little value, 

 first because the disease will not thrive unless the weather is favorable, 

 and second because some of it is nearly always present where the bugs 

 are prevalent or appear before it can be secured from a distant source. 

 Adults hibernate under trash and grass in the fields or near them. 

 When the young bugs are very numerous and are migrating from one 

 field to another they may be checked by various barriers, such as a row 

 of boards on edge, a line of tar, a furrow with smooth, steep sides, etc. 

 The same barriers might be used for army worms or other insects 

 which migrate over ground. Fall plowing of stubble fields destroys the 

 larvae of the joint worms and straw worms which affect small grains. 

 Grasshoppers, which are sometimes of economic importance, spend the 

 winter in the egg stage. Plowing six inches deep destroys them. Adults 

 may be poisoned by spraying the weeds about the field with a solution 

 of white arsenic, one pound to fifty gallons of water, which will be 

 serious for the weeds also. Fall plowing and clean culture are as im- 

 portant for the garden as for the field. The trash heaps should be 

 burned early in the spring, as they furnish an attractive place for vari- 

 ous insects to hibernate. In addition to fall plowing, poisoned bait 

 may be used for cut worms. It consists of one pound of white arsenic, 

 two quarts of syrup and fifty pounds of bran made into a mash. This 

 is scattered over the ground, preferably before the plants are up. Tar- 

 nished plant bugs and curious little leaf hoppers are small sucking in- 

 sects infesting various plants and sometimes become quite injurious. 

 Adults hibernate under litter and trash. The destruction of their hiber- 

 nating places ,is the only remedy. The squash bug requires the same 



