/m'^ECTS INFESTING WHEAT. 



285 



occur in such destructive numbers, or to migrate from one 

 place to another, as the California locusts are known to do. 



Remedy. — Mr. R. B. Blowers has been successful in destroy- 

 ing locusts, or grasshoppers, in his clover and alfalfa fields 

 that were seriously infested, by using an arrangement con- 

 structed as follows : He had a pan constructed of sheet iron, 

 ten fe(it long and three feet wide, turned up a few inches on 

 the sides and ends ; this was strengthened by pieces of two by 

 two inch Oregon pine. A board ten feet long, two feet wide 

 and lialf an inch thick is used on the back of the pan, and 

 fastened with braces. A light runner is placed under each end 

 and in the middle, raising the pan about one inch from the 

 ground. Ropes are attached to each of the front corners, and 

 to these a horse is hitched. Coal tar to the depth of from 

 half an inch to one inch is placed in the pan. A boy is then 

 placed on the horse's back, and drives backward and forward 

 over the infested grounds. If the tar is too thick, thin with 

 petroleum. The dead bodies of the insects can be taken out 

 of the liquid with a rake or some other implement. 



CHAPTER CLXXXIX. 



The Wheat Midge. 

 {Dijjlosis tritici. — Kirby.) 

 Order, Diptera ; Family, Cecidomyid.e. 

 in the heads of wheat ; an orange-yellow footless 



[Livin 

 maggot.] 



Fig. 273.— Wheat Midge and Lar- 

 va ; at the left the larva, or maggot, 

 natural size ; in the middle the 

 same, highly magnified — c o 1 o r , 

 orange ; at the right the fly, or 

 midge, with its wings closed — color, 

 orange. 



As we have never met with this 

 insect in this State, we take the fol- 

 lowing condensed account from 

 Packard's " Guide to the Study of Insects." 



Fig. 273. 



