62 THE CHINCH BUG. 
an entomological factor connected with the modern fence that has 
been overlooked, giving it, in this respect, an advantage over the 
more ancient form. Shocks of fodder corn left in the fields over 
winter certainly afford protection for many chinch bugs, as also 
will coarse stable manure spread on the fields before the chinch bugs 
have selected their place of hibernation in the fall. In short, the first 
protective measure to be carried out is a general cleaning up in winter 
or early spring either by burning or pasturing or both. 
SOWING DECOY PLATS OF ATTRACTIVE GRAINS OR GRASSES IN EARLY SPRING. 
Judging from the manner in which the wintered-over adults are 
attracted to hills of young corn, wheat fields, or plats of panic grass 
and foxtail, it has always seemed to the writer practicable to take ad- 
vantage of this habit and sow small patches of millet, Hungarian 
grass, spring wheat, or even corn, early in the spring and thus bait 
the adults as they come forth from their places of hibernation. Their 
instincts will prompt them to seek out the places likely to afford the 
most desirable food supply for their progeny, and if an artificial 
supply can be offered them that will be more attractive than that 
furnished by nature, the bugs will certainly not overlook the fact, 
but will take advantage of it to congregate and deposit their eggs 
there, whereupon eggs, young, and adults can, a little later, be sum- 
marily dealt with by plowing both bugs and their food under and 
harrowing and rolling the ground to keep the former from crawling 
to the surface and escaping. The writer has thoroughly tested this 
method in a case where the bugs, young and old, had taken posses- 
sion of a plat of neglected ground overrun with panic grass (Panicum 
crus-galli), which was mown and promptly removed and the ground 
plowed, harrowed, and rolled before the bugs could escape, thus 
burying them beneath several inches of soil out of which they were 
unable to make their way, and as a consequence they were almost 
totally annihilated, hardly 1 per cent making their escape to an 
adjoining cornfield. 
DIFFICULTY OF REACHING CHINCH BUGS IN MEADOWS. 
There is, however, some doubt in regard to the practicability of 
applying these measures in meadows. Meadow lands can be burned 
over with perfect safety to either the grass or clover, if done while the 
ground is frozen, but there is danger of injury if burned over in 
spring, and it is somewhat doubtful if the hibernating chinch bugs 
would be killed unless the surface of the ground was heated to a 
degree that the grass and clover plants would hardly be able to 
withstand. 
