The Chinch Bug and Its Control. 9 
forked beard grass,'' barnyard grass,! oat grass, bur grass,'* crab 
grass,° Burmuda grass,’* green foxtail,’” yellow foxtail,!* St. Augus- 
tine grass,” reed,*° and old witch*!. It is also said to feed upon a 
so-called wild buckwheat. It has recently been reported as feeding 
upon the leaves of the currant in Christiania, Norway. 
In Kansas, Oklahoma, and some other Middle Western States, 
the big bluestem, little bluestem, Johnson grass, and some other 
bunch-forming grasses are utilized largely for shelter during the 
winter and as food on the warmer days of early spring. 
The insect has therefore an ample food supply outside of the. 
cultivated fields, although when limited entirely to its wild host 
plants it does not often increase excessively. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
WINTER QUARTERS. 
It is vital to know where the chinch bug passes the winter, be- 
cause important means of destruction are based on its hibernating 
habits, and furthermore this knowledge suggests the need of certain 
farm practices which tend to discourage the insect. 
The bugs are most abundant at the bases of bunch-forming grasses, 
such as bluestem and prairie grass, along hedges, brushy fence rows, 
ditch banks, roadsides, and woodlands, in meadows, pastures, and 
ravines, preferring southern slopes and areas south of protecting 
woodlands or hedges. Where more suitable shelter is not at hand, 
they sometimes remain in dead and partly decayed stubbles left in the 
field after plowing, in corn and sorghum shocks, and in standing 
corn. : | 
Their destructive work usually begins along the edges of fields 
bordering such places. Again and again serious destructive outbreaks 
of the pest in wheat fields have been traced directly to the excellent 
hibernating quarters furnished by shocks of corn, kafir, cane, Sudan 
grass, and other fodder allowed to stand in the field through the 
winter. The bug also hibernates in weeds, grass, and leaves along 
roadsides and edges of cultivated fields, in the angles of worm fences, 
under loose stones and logs, in rotting stumps, and under newly 
spread manure, bits of boards, and sacks. 
11 Andropogon furcatus Muhl. 
12 Hehinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauy. 
18 Arrhenatherum elatius (l.) Mert. & Koch. 
144 Cenchrus tribuloides L. 
1% Syntherisma sanguinalis (l.) Dulac. 
18 Capriola dactylon (L.) Kuntze. 
1 Chaetochloa viridis (L.) Seribn. 
18 Chactochloa lutesccus (Weigel.) Stuntz. 
1° Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze. 
20 Phragmites sp. 
1 Panieum capillare L. 
50663°—21 2 
