64 THE CHINCH BUG. 
among them, and, while not destroying every individual, this will 
reduce their numbers to such an extent that they will be unable to 
work any serious injury. 
In case the weather at the time should, on the contrary, be wet and 
rainy, so that it is impossible to mow and burn, the prompt distribu- 
tion of the fungus Sporotrichum will prove of immense value; for in 
this case the more the bugs are massed over a limited area, the more 
fatal will be the effects of the fungus, and especially will this prove 
true if the land is low and inclined to be damp. This statement will 
also hold good with reference to meadow lands during the breeding 
season, though later the adults do not appear to succumb to the 
effects of the fungus nearly as readily, and the writer has found the 
fungus present in spring among masses of hibernating individuals, 
with little indication of its contagious nature, only an occasional 
individual being attacked. 
UTILITY OF KEROSENE IN FIGHTING CHINCH BUGS. 
In fighting the chinch bug there is at present no more useful sub- 
stance than kerosene, either in the form of an emulsion or undiluted. 
From its penetrating nature, prompt action, and fatal effects on the 
chinch bug, even when applied as an emulsion, it becomes an inex- 
pensive insecticide, while it has the further advantage of being an 
article of universal use in every farmhouse, and is therefore always at 
hand for immediate use. The emulsion has the further advantage of 
being capable of sufficient reduction in strength to prove fatal to insect 
hfe and yet not injure the vegetation upon which such may be depre- 
dating. Diluted and ready for use, the emulsion is prepared as fol- 
lows: Dissolve one-half pound of hard soap in 1 gallon of water, 
preferably rain water, heated to the boiling point over-a brisk fire, and 
pour this suds while still hot into 2 gallons of kerosene. Churn or 
otherwise agitate this mixture for a few minutes until it becomes of a 
cream-like consistency and, on cooling, will form a jelly-like mass 
which adheres to the surface of glass without oiliness. For each gallon 
of this emulsion use 15 gallons of water, mixing thoroughly. If 
appled to growing corn it will be best to use the emulsion either dur- 
ing the morning or evening, say before 8 a. m. or after 5 p. m., as at 
those times it will be less likely to affect the plants than if applied 
in the heat of the day. 
Where an invasion of the chinch bug is in progress from a field of 
wheat to an adjoining field of corn, as an illustration, the marginal 
rows of corn can frequently be saved, even after the bugs have massed 
upon the plants, by spraying or sprinkling them freely with kerosene 
emulsion, being careful not to get much of it directly into the crown 
of the plants and using a sufficient quantity so that the emulsion will 
