to FIKST ANNUAL liiil'OKT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Ants. — Three spoonfuls of fluid to four gallons of water will de- 

 stroy these insects. 



The claims made for the Soluble Phenyle as an insecticide warrant 

 thorough experiments for testing its value. I have received a package 

 of it, but too late to report any experiments with it at the present time. 

 It may probably be procured in most of our larger cities of prominent 

 druggists. It is put up for sale in bottles, at from twenty-five cents to 

 one dollar each, equal to from three to twenty-five gallons when di- 

 luted for use. 



10. Coal-tar as an Insecticide. 



Dumas, the celebrated French chemist, who was employed by the 

 Government to discover the best means for the destruction of the 

 Phylloxera, experimented with over a hundred substances — most of 

 which were active poisons, and found that the best results were ob- 

 tained witli the sulpho-carbonates and coal-tar.* The latter substance 

 has accordingly been employed in France for destroying the Phylloxera 

 with very good results. 



In this country it has been largely employed as a means for catching 

 and destroying the Rocky Mountain locust in several of the Western 

 States, A very simple contrivance was invented for its use, which 

 was known as the Bobbins Coal-tar Pan: " A strip of sheet-iron 

 twelve or fifteen feet long is bent up one edge sufRciently to admit of 

 its passing over lumps of earth; other strips, from four to six inches 

 wide, are riveted to the other edge and at each end, forming a kind of 

 scoop. A wire is attached to each front corner of the scoop by which 

 it can be drawn over the ground. A chain or rope is fastened so that 

 it will drag upon the ground about eighteen inches in advance of the 

 machine to scare up the grasshoppers. The inside of the pan is cov- 

 ered with tar, and the machine is dragged across the field against the 

 wind. The efficacy of this simple contrivance is wonderful. One 

 gallon of tar is good for a bushel of grasshoppers when rightly used.'* 



This simple arrangement so satisfactorily accomplished its purpose, 

 giving relief from the fearful locust invasions when nearly all other 

 means had been found ineffectual, that Governor Pillsbury, of Minne- 

 sota, undertook to furnish to all parties throughout the State who 

 would make application, immediate supply of the required material, 

 upon understanding of future reimbursement by them. In his Annual 

 Message for 1S77, the Governor states : ''This offer was promptly ac- 

 cepted, and all available supplies for material having been secured at 

 wholesale, a rigorous war of extermination was maintained simulta- 



*Annalea da Chimie et de Physique, 5e seric, vii, 1876. * 



