CORN OR MAIZE 95 



larva becomes partially grown before winter. After passing the 

 winter in the ground, it wakes up in the spring and lays low the 

 plants that come in its way. There is no practical means of 

 controlling its attacks upon the corn. A mixture of wheat bran, 

 Paris green, and molasses may be used effectively in controlling 

 it on small areas, but this is hardly practicable in the corn field. 



76. The corn-root louse. The corn-root lice are very 

 interesting insects. They are interesting because the ants which 

 so carefully guard and care for them are often given credit for the 

 damage done. If a nest of the small brown ants is broken open 

 in the fall or winter, usually there will be found the eggs of the 

 corn-root louse carefully stored away. When spring comes, the 

 ants carry the lice eggs to the roots of the smart weeds, where 

 they hatch and the larvae feed upon the roots. If corn is planted 

 near by, the ants will carry the lice to the roots of the young corn 

 plants on which they will feed, and if they are plentiful, will 

 cause the corn to have a stunted appearance and the leaves will 

 turn red and yellow. When such areas are seen in the corn field, 

 usually the ants are credited with the injury, since they are seen 

 busily engaged about the base of the corn plant. The facts are, 

 however, that the ants are only indirectly responsible for the 

 injury. They care for and protect the lice because the latter 

 excrete from a pair of small tubes on the back part of the abdomen 

 a sweet, honey-like fluid upon which the ants feed with great 

 relish. So long have they looked after the welfare of the lice 

 that the latter are now dependent upon them, and if the ants are 

 destroyed, the lice soon perish. The destruction of the ants, 

 therefore, is the means of controlling the lice. This may be done 

 by digging up the nest in winter or by killing them by pouring a 

 quantity of carbon bisulphide into the nest and covering it over 

 with a blanket to retain the fumes. 



77. The corn root-worm. Growers often wonder why their 

 corn blows over in some fields and not in others. If the corn that 

 blows over is in a field that has been in corn for two years or more 

 in succession, the corn root- worm may be the cause of the trouble. 

 This insect has been a serious pest in many sections of the coun- 

 try, particularly in those sections where rotation of crops is not 

 regularly practiced. The eggs of the corn root-worm are laid in 

 the ground near the base of the stalk sometime in the fall. They 

 hatch in June and the root- worm feeds on the roots of the growing 



