6 
and st the end of nine days no “ green bugs ” were to be found on the 
areas so treated. Also there was no perceivable injury to the grass. 
Whale-oil soap solutions, varying in strength from one-fourth of a 
pound to 2 pounds of soap to each 5 gallons of water, were applied to 
similar areas. In this case the stronger solution injured the grass 
slightly, but not permanently; in the*case of the lesser strengths there 
was no injury whatever. The effect on the * green bug ” was the same 
in every case. They were not only literally exterminated over the 
areas treated, but the applications seemed to protect from a reinfesta- 
tion. In case of even the weakest solution an examination five days 
after the application was made revealed the “ green bugs ” in myriads 
and breeding freely on the untreated space, while but 8 inches away 
and on the treated area living bugs were scarcely to be found, though 
the dead were to be observed almost as abundantly as were the living 
on the space untreated. It must be remembered, however, that these 
experiments were carried out in grass kept. closely cropped by frequent 
use of the lawn mower, and the results obtained in no way reflect upon 
similar experiments carried out by Messrs. Ainshe and Phillips in the 
grain fields of Oklahoma. 
INVASION OF 1907. 
ee 
A better appreciation of the interrelation of the “ green bug ” and 
its principal parasitic enemy can be conveyed by giving a chrono- 
logical statement of our investigations of the very disastrous inva- 
sion of the * green bug ~ durmg the winter and spring of 1907. 
The first rumors of injuries by this pest came to us early in Janu- 
ary from east-central Texas, where the * green bugs ” were reported 
to Mr. W. D. Hunter, in charge of cotton boll weevil investigations 
of this Bureau, as attacking fall oats. During this month in Texas, 
east of a line drawn from near Gainesville through Abilene and 
San Antonio to Galveston, the temperature was 9° above the normal. 
Within this area was a smaller one, the boundaries of which may be 
indicated by a line drawn from Texarkana to Fort Worth, Waco, 
and Joaquin. Over this latter area the temperature for the same 
month was 12° above the normal, and within this area the pest began 
its work of destruction. 
Also, judging from data received later, the pest began to breed 
rapidly in fall-sown oats in southern South Carolina, where the tem- 
perature was from 6° to 9° above the normal. 
During February all over the region west of the Mississippi River 
and the Great Lakes the temperature was above the normal, and 
in the Carolinas it was only shghtly below. During this month 
much damage seems to have been done in Texas, and there is every 
[Cir. 93] 
