Chinch Bus Outlook For 1935 



By Prof Wesley P. Flint, Chief Entomologist ' 



PBOr. FLIITT 



RECENTLY many questions have 

 been asked as to what effect the 

 weather of the winter has had on 

 the chinch bug situation. Counts made in 

 neveral different parts of central Illinois 

 during the past two weeks show that an 

 average of from 11 to 14 per cent of the 

 bups have died during the winter. This 

 is a little higher than the usual winter 

 mortality. There are, however, more 

 bugs left alive in most of the state than 

 was the case at the 

 same time last year. 

 There will probably 

 be no significant 

 change in chinch bug 

 conditions until late 

 May and June. 



If the weather 

 during this period is 

 wet, the bugs will 

 cause very little and 

 possibly almost no 

 damage. The general 

 flight of the bugs 

 out from their winter quarters into the 

 spring grain will occur whenever we 

 have a period of warm weather lasting 

 for several days with several hours on 

 a stretch of temperatures of above 70 

 degrees Fahrenheit with sunshiny 

 weather. The flight from winter quarters 

 will not all occur on one day but will 

 take place over a period of a week to a."* 

 much as three week.s. The critical pe- 

 riod is after the bugs are nearly all in 

 the small grain and when they are just 

 starting to mate and lay their eggs. If 

 cold wet weather occurs at that time we 

 can expect a very great decrease in the 

 numbers of bugs and much less damage 

 than was the case last year. 



It is impossible at this time to make 

 definite predictions as to whether or not 

 we will get this type of weather dur- 

 ing the coming spring. AH that we can 

 say is at the present time chinch bugs 

 are sufficiently abundant in all sections 

 of the state north of a line drawn from 

 St. Louis, Missouri, to Vincennes, Indi- 

 ana, to cause nearly or quite as serious 

 damage as was the case last year. At 

 *he present time we know the bugs are 

 there and that barring unfavorable 

 weather, they will be seriously destruc- 

 tive during the growing season of 1935. 

 With this situation in mind it will be 

 well to prepare now to make the best 

 fight we can against these insects. Fol- 

 lowing are some things you can do: 

 1. Use the maxinaum acreage possible 

 in chinch bug proof crops. This is 

 cheapest and most effective. 



2. Arrange all crops so that the bugs 

 will cause the least amount of 

 damage. 



3. Time the planting of certain sus- 

 ceptible crops so that they may 

 in whole or in part escape injury. 



4. Use resistant strains of susceptible 

 crops. 



5. Interplant chinch bug immune and 

 chinch bug susceptible crops which 

 will, to some extent, protect the 

 susceptible ones. 



Chinch bug immune or chinch bug 

 proof crops include red clover, sweet 

 clover, vetch, field peas, Lespedeza, al- 

 falfa, stock beets, buckwheat, sunflow- 

 ers, rape, flax and all other crops that 

 are not grasses. If you can grow any of 

 these crops to advantage on your farm. 

 1935 will be a good year to plant some 

 of them, as they will not be bothered by 

 bugs nor will the bugs reproduce and 

 multiply in them. 



Soybeans are the outstanding chinch 

 bug resistant crop in this state. During 

 the past few years the returns from soy- 

 beans has been equal or greater than 

 the returns from corn. It is possible 

 that the crop may be somewhat over- 

 done but it is the safest crop we have 

 in chinch bug years and one of the best 

 all around crops in those years both 

 from the standpoint of money returns 

 and of feed production. Other crops 

 may, under special conditions, give high- 

 ly profitable returns but soybeans give 

 us probably our best weapon for com- 

 bating the bugs. Soybeans can be grown 

 by themselves or interplanted with other 

 crops. In the case of corn and beans 

 planted together, the bugs may become 

 abundant enough to destroy the com but 

 the beans will be left so that the ground 

 will produce some feed at least. Planted 

 with Sudan grass during the first 20 

 days of May, the soybeans cause such a 

 dense shade in the Sudan that bugs avoid 

 it and in our experience during the past 

 two years have caused almost no injury 

 where soybeans and Sudan were inter- 

 planted. 



In that part of the state that is 

 adapted to it, Lespedeza also gives us a 

 powerful chinch bug weapon and a crop 

 that is highly valuable. It gives good re- 

 turns and is 100 per cent chinch bug 

 proof. 



Buckwheat has also given good returns 

 under some conditions and the same may 

 be said of flax. Alfalfa was certainly 

 one of the best weapons to use in fight- 

 ing the bugs last year and one of the 

 lifesavers so far as crops were concerned 



S&iii', 



in that it produced fair to moderate 

 amounts of feed in spite of both chinch 

 bugs and drouth. 



Sweet clover is in the same class, is 

 chinch bug immune and a great aid in 

 fighting these insects. 



Next comes the question of the use 

 of barriers at the time of the migration 

 of the bugs from small grain to com. 

 The creosote barrier is still the most 

 effective of any we have found. In the 

 course of our experimental work last 

 season we used a new type of ban-ier. 

 using creosote as a repellent but em- 

 ploying a paper strip four inches wide 

 for carrying the creosote. This paper 

 may be either treated tar felt or siagle 

 faced corrugated paper. The paper is 

 first cut into four inch strips. It is 

 then treated by soaking in chinch bug 

 cresote or melted naphthalene. A num- 

 ber of manufacturers will have treated 

 papers on the market this year or the 

 paper may be bought in rolls from the 

 lumber yard and sawed with a cross cut 

 saw or with a hand saw into strips four 

 inches wide, and treated by dipping in 

 the regular chinch bug creosote. 



A narrow trench is made along the 

 brow of the ridge erected as for the 

 creosote on earth barrier. This can be 

 done with an ordinary corn cultivator 

 with all but one shovel removed ; with a 

 disk cultivator, with a garden hand cul- 

 tivator, the point of a hoe, or any other 

 implement that will make a trench 2^ 

 inches deep. The paper is set in the 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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