Dec, 'o6] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 365 



were removed; eighty minutes later two crawled off: twelve 

 hours later all had revived, though some were still stupid. At 

 the end of thirty-two minutes, five more were taken from the 

 box ; one hour later one crawled off, and thirty-six hours later 

 two were found dead; at forty-seven minutes six were re- 

 moved. Four of these were dead thirty-six hours later. 



Again, to show the attraction of the loose dust or soil for the 

 bugs, for they would undoubtedly crawl into sawdust equally 

 readily, ten bugs were placed on the surface of a half inch of 

 tobacco dust. All crawled into it at once. Three subsequently 

 crawled out and away. None remained on the surface, though 

 near it. In ten minutes all were stupefied and were removed 

 and exposed to air. Some of these had recovered ninety min- 

 utes later and all revived in a few hours. 



• Thus the bugs crawl into the tobacco and remain there, 

 where they are stupefied by its fumes sometimes in ten minutes. 

 If allowed to remain forty-five minutes, two-thirds at least are 

 killed. As a matter of fact, where a pile of tobacco dust re- 

 mained undisturbed around a plant the mortality would be 

 almost entire, for as soon as stupefied the bugs would remain 

 in it undisturbed. However theoretically plausible the method 

 may seem, it will not be practicable in Texas owing to the con- 

 stant strong winds, which soon scatter the dust. Its action on 

 the bugs is, however, of interest, and might be put to practical 

 use in the case of the false chinch bug, which has very similar 

 habits when working on garden vegetables. 



The best means of control for the chinch bug in Texas, and 

 one which practical farmers have found satisfactory through 

 their own experiments, is the destruction of all corn and 

 sorghum stalks or stubble left in the field and the general clean- 

 ing up of all. places favorable for hibernation as far as possible. 

 Sorghum stubble seems a particularly favored place of hiber- 

 nators. Especially is this necessary where sorghum and June 

 corn are grown late in the summer and early fall, thus furnish- 

 ing abundant succulent food for the later generations, and the 

 volunteer plants forming food in early spring. Indeed, to 

 these late fodder plants may be largely attributed the destruc- 

 tive numbers of the chinch bug in early spring upon young 



