CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 89 
taken with the flame in order to use it safely and effectively. The 
flame must be in motion all of the time while on the plant, and gen- 
erally one blast will cause all the bugs to fall to the ground, where 
they can be burned. 
There are several spraying materials which can be used effectively 
against the bugs after they have congregated on the young corn, 
but, unfortunately, most of these are injurious to the plants. Kero- 
sene emulsion of 5 per cent strength will generally kill the bugs and 
will not always injure the corn. The stock solution is made by 
boiling 1 pound of good lye soap in 1 gallon of water, adding this to 
2 gallons of kerosene and stirring the mixture with a paddle for five 
to ten minutes. A better way to stir the mixture is to put the 
nozzle of the spray in the vessel and pump the liquid back into the 
vessel for five minutes. Dilute the mixture to a 4 or 5 per cent 
solution by adding soft water. Some of the proprietary spraying 
materials and cattle dips have been used to kill the bugs where they 
have become alarmingly abundant. One serious objection to these 
materials is that they are very injurious to the plants. However, it 
is sometimes better to sacrifice the first few rows and save the field 
than to let the bugs have their way. 
UNSATISFACTORY REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
GREEN-CORN BARRIERS. 
Cutting the first half dozen or dozen rows of green corn and making 
a continuous pile along the last row cut is a method of creating a 
barrier very often employed. The green-corn barrier is made about 
the time the chinch bugs begin to enter the corn. The bugs are 
checked an hour or two by the corn pile, but readily pass on to the 
fresh, living plants. 
The piles of corn plants afford shelter for the bugs, and often a 
quart of cast skins can be found in a heap under these piles. These 
cast skins have often been misleading to farmers, inducing them to 
believe that the bugs died from eating the sour juices of the cut 
corn or having died from disease. A barrier of this kind is not to be 
recommended. 
PLOWING UNDER INFESTED CROPS. 
As the chinch bugs in the Southwest do not hibernate in cornfields, 
plowing under of stalks and stubble in such localities will be of no 
advantage. It has been repeatedly shown that plowing under a crop 
of wheat, rye, or barley badly infested with young bugs 1s not effective 
unless the plowing is deep and very thoroughly done and the field 
is immediately afterwards harrowed and rolled. 
