320 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



usually avoid the sunlight and consequently are not often 

 found on closely cropped lawns unless these are shaded by 

 shrubs or trees. 



Redbugs are often found attached to the bodies of insects, 

 notably to grasshoppers and to house-flies underneath the 

 wings. The author witnessed a rather unusual attack of 

 redbugs on young chickens in Mississippi at one time. In 

 this case they occurred in clusters and formed red nodules 

 or tubercles on the flesh of the fowls. In one tubercle 

 seventeen mites were counted and in another nineteen were 

 seen all closely packed together like small red berries 

 with their heads buried in the flesh like ticks. The mites 

 affected their hosts seriously, for the chickens soon con- 

 tracted diarrhea, grew weaker, and finally died. 



In Europe, a closely related harvest mite, Leptus autum- 

 nalis, seems to prefer small mammals as hosts, such as 

 moles, hares, dogs, and cats. It occasionally appears on 

 cows and on cavalry horses, the latter of which have been 

 seriously attacked during the autumn maneuvers of the 

 army. In horses the mites cause an affection of the skin 

 about the knees and hocks. If the harvest mites confined 

 themselves to plants and the lower animals as hosts, we 

 should have no cause of complaint against them here ; 

 but it is their habit of attacking man that gives us so much 

 concern. 



Their manner of attack on man and nature of the 

 injury. — The redbugs (Fig. 1 10) are so small that when 

 they have once gained access to the body of an individual 

 they can easily pass through the meshes of the finest under- 

 clothing or stockings and reach the skin. Hamilton, in a 

 rather humorous article, says that the mites wander around 

 until they find the openings to the sweat tubes and then 



