194 



PESTS OF G A ED EN AND FIELD CROPS 



that caused by adults and young on the grains to which the adults 

 have migrated in the spring. This is especially evident where corn 

 shocks have been left standing in fields seeded to small grain. 



Meaures of control are various, and must be thorough and timely. 

 The most important measure is destruction of all hibernating places 

 where the bugs are accustomed to spend the winter. 



Clumps of grass should be raked up and burned; fence corners 

 cleaned out ; all places that harbor bugs looked after. If plowing is 

 depended on to destroy hiber- 

 nating bugs, it must be done 

 with great thoroughness, else the 

 bugs will succeed in reaching the 

 surface of the ground. 



Invasions of the bugs from 

 newly harvested fields can be 

 prevented by suitable barriers, 

 among wliich the following is 

 known by experience to be prac- 

 ticable and effective: A strip 

 of ground along the side from 

 which the invasion tln-eatens is 

 smoothed and compacted by dragging over it a heavy plank. 

 Along the center of this path a narrow line of coal tar or road 

 oil is poured. The fine of oil need be only half or tliree quarters 

 of an inch wide. At intervals of three or four rods post holes are 

 dug, the edge of the hole nearest the field to be protected just inter- 

 cepting the line of oil. The invading bugs, when they reach this line, 

 travel along it until they come to the angle of the oil line and the hole, 

 when they are crowded into the hole and are unable to get out. They 

 can then be killed easily by sprinkling with kerosene or kerosene emul- 

 sion, or by crushing with a pole. In dusty weather the oil fine will need 

 renewal every day or so, while the invasion threatens. 



If a field of wheat is seen to be beyond reasonable hope, it is best to 

 plow it under at once, harrow thoroughly, and plant to potatoes, alfalfa, 

 soy beans, garden truck, or whatever is seasonable. 



Fig. 242. — The Chinch-bug. Enlarged 

 and natural size. Original. 



