28 | Farmers’ Bulletin 1223. 
a bundle of soft cloth in the twisted-wire holder of a mop stick and 
saturating it with coal oil. Either of the types of blow torch pre- 
viously mentioned will also serve. 
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED. 
In March a field-to-field examination of little bluestem and other 
bunch-forming grasses conducted over a large sheet of newspaper or 
oilcloth will enable the farmer to form an opinion of his chinch-bug 
prospects. If he finds several or many bugs in each bunch examined 
he will do well to defend himself against these wintered-over insects 
getting into his wheat, and prepare his equipment for spraying or 
the laying of barrier lines. 
TRAP STRIPS BETWEEN WINTER QUARTERS AND WHEAT. 
A strip of wheat, millet, oats, or rye placed between infestations 
in bunch grasses and other wintering places and the nearest fields 
of small grains will usually attract the bugs and prevent them from 
scattering widely. In April this trap strip should be watched closely 
so that it may be destroyed when its infestation is greatest. If such 
trap strip be not planted in time to attract the bugs, or if not planted 
at all, the edges of wheat fields nearest to areas of bunch grasses, 
pastures, roadsides, and ditch banks should be carefully inspected 
every few days, beginning about mid-April. As impending serious 
outbreaks are most likely to be first discovered in wheat fields shortly 
before harvest, when the overwintered adults have their first summer 
generation well under way, it becomes expedient and decidedly profit- _ 
able to discover the bugs early. 
TRAP STRIPS BETWEEN WHEAT AND CORN. 
May is the time for planting any trap crop intended to protect 
corn and sorghum from the bugs migrating from wheat ripening 
in June or early July. Occasionally this trap may be planted in 
June and still make enough growth to have real value. Millet and 
cane are suggested as the best crops at this time. To be most service- 
able, this trap crop should be between the infested wheat and the 
corn or sorghum to be protected, should be at least one drill-width, 
and should be seeded early enough to allow a growth of 4 to 6 inches 
before the bugs begin to migrate. The bugs in the trap strip should 
be destroyed when the largest possible number is present and while 
the plants are still succulent. They may be killed by plowing the 
strip 7 inches or more deep and firming the soil with drag or roller, 
or they may be killed by spraying. 
