April, '11] GOSSARD: insects of the year 207 



cation was made with a Spramotor field sprayer and the beetles were 

 practically annihilated by both poisons, but it required several days 

 longer for the iron compound to fully accomplish its work than the 

 lead poison. 



In Paulding County considerable damage was done to young corn 

 by the very common crambid webworm, Crambus trisectus. A num- 

 ber of fields had to be replanted and the stand in many others was 

 greatly thinned. Except this species, I could find only a single cater- 

 pillar of Crambus caliginosellus concerned in the damage. Where 

 corn had followed corn, there was no damage, but over pasture lands 

 and stubble fields of the preceding year, the worms were abundant, 

 as many as a dozen being quite readily found in some hills of corn. I 

 found the worms feeding freely about the roots of clover and proved 

 by observation that they could readily subsist on this plant without 

 other food. The farmers reported that some of their Indiana neigh- 

 bors had some success in controlling the worms by the use of a fer- 

 tilizer attachment to the corn planter by which a quantity of tobacco 

 dust was dropped in each hill. We had no opportunity to test the 

 remedy. Grasshoppers were reported as more than usually destruc- 

 tive and numerous from several points in northwestern Ohio and 

 from one locality in the southeastern part of the state. In north- 

 western Ohio chinch bugs have been more numerous the past season 

 than for many years, and considerable damage was done to corn after 

 wheat harvest. We distributed many packages of Sporotrichum glob- 

 uliferum, but our cultures seemed to lack virility even under favorable 

 conditions, and I question if we were not doing more harm than good by 

 distributing it, for many farmers will rely altogether upon it and do 

 nothing at all for themselves if the fungus is supplied to them. The 

 wheat joint worm was less numerous than for three years, but was 

 responsible for a good deal of damage. The Hessian fly was more 

 numerous in the fall than for several years and we anticipate general 

 and quite severe damage from it next season. We put out a press 

 bulletin in early September advising rather late sowing, but would 

 have been considerably more emphatic if we had sensed the full 

 situation. The general and prolonged drought in many sections of 

 the state retarded the appearance of the flies, and the copious rains of 

 early October brought out all the stragglers with a rush and massed 

 them at a date so late that even very late sown wheat was severely 

 attacked in many instances. Our records at the station show that 

 egg-laying had been under way and at quite a vigorous rate previous to 

 the 19th of September, and continued throughout the month, reaching 

 a maximum for the last eleven days of the month on the 26th and 27th. 

 On the 8th of October, following three or four days of drenching 



