August, '19] MORRILL: SWEETS IN POISONED BAITS 339 



Agricultural Experiment Station.^ In work against the dark-sided 

 cutworm (Euxoa messoria) it was found that dry bran and Paris green 

 were as attractive to the cutworms as was moistened bran and 

 remained effective over a longer period. 



In recent years the recommendations of Sirrine seemed to have been 

 largely overlooked by economic entomologists and it has become 

 the rule to recommend the addition of molasses in poisoned baits for 

 cutworms. Exceptions to this rule are noted however. Dr. S. A. 

 Forbes, for instance, writing on corn pests in 1905,^ following Sirrine's 

 recommendations advised distributing with a seed drill dry bran or 

 middlings poisoned by mixing in Paris green. Other writers have 

 recommended salt instead of sugar or molasses. Dr. James Fletcher 

 in 1901 quoted Mr. Norman Griddle^ in regard to grasshopper baits, 

 recommending one part of Paris green, one part of salt and 11 parts of 

 bran. 



The literature in regard to grasshopper and cutworm baits includes 

 very little data which bears directly upon the value of molasses as an 

 ingredient of such baits. Messrs. Hunter and Claassen in 1913* 

 experimented with various poisoned mixtures including a series of 

 bran and Paris green with and without syrups. Their results show^ed 

 practically no difference between the plain bran and Paris green 

 mixture and the bran-syrup Paris green mixture, a total of 329 hoppers 

 being recorded at the first and 312 hoppers at the second. Prof. G. A. 

 Dean, referring to experiments also conducted in Kansas in 1913 and 

 previously,^ stated in effect that glucose syrup w^as preferred over 

 molasses. 



In Canada, Mr. E. H. Strickland, after experiments with poisoned 

 baits against two species of cutworms, the red-backed cutworm and 

 the pale western cutworm, reported without presenting data that 

 "true beet molasses gave the best results."^ 



A Russian Entomologist, B. Pukhov,^ in his work against extensive 

 grasshopper outbreaks in Russia (Gomphocerus sibiricus and other 

 northern species of grasshoppers) found that wet bran in itself was very 

 attractive to the insects but that "stale molasses" decreased its 

 attractiveness. 



The writer's experiments in 1917 were given in detail in a paper read 



» Bui. 120, p. 194. 



» Twenty-third Rep. State Ent. of 111., p. IS, 1905. 



» Rep. of Entomologist and Botanist in Ann. Rep. Exp. Farm for year 1900, pp. 

 20G-207. 



* Jour. Econ. Ent., Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 81. 

 » Jour. Econ. Ent., Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 82. 



• Circ. 6. Ent. Branch Dept. Agr., Dom. Can., 1916. 



^ Agric. Gazette, Petrograd, 1917. See Rev. App. Ent., Vol. V, p. 355. 



