198 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



its ill-!5avored inhabitants. Tims, uot only will 

 the insect be prevented from migrating on to 

 the adjacent corn-fields, but its future multipli- 

 cation will be considerably checked. 



A very simple, cheap and easy method of pre- 

 vention was recommended seven years ago by 

 Mr. Wilson Phelps, of Crete, Ills., which we 

 give for what it is worth. It may very probably 

 be effectual when the bugs are not too numerous, 

 andcoH.'iiiily ran do iKriianii. 



Willi \-l l.ii-lirK (if -jiriin;- wlirat mix one bushel of 



lirinliim nut . lull >|ir.M(lin'j ..ul (■l..-i' to tlic srrouiul, the 



I UN will 



willol nniv.i- Ik. im ilaii-n- ,il Ihrxvmlri- ryr mixing 

 «illi tlic spiiii-nli. Ml. — /■;,(//■/, J-urmrr, Apriilli, 1S02. 



When Chinch IJugs arc likely to march, as 

 they often do, after the fashion of Army-worms 

 {Leucania unlpuncta, Haw.), from an infected 

 to an uninfected licld, Mr. H. J. Everest, of 

 Stoughton, Dane county. Wis., recommends 

 the following plan, which is stated to have been 

 tried by several persons and found to be per- 

 fectly effectual : 

 ' T:ikc c'oinmuM Iriio-bonnls, six inclics m- less wide, 



Finally, wlicii tlic CUincli lings are already in 

 tlie lield which it is proposed to rescue from tlieir 

 clutches, 'My. ]\Iichacl IIopps, of Lyousville, 

 Cook county. 111., says that he saved a piece 

 of wheat by soM'ing gas-lime broadcast over it, 

 at the rate of si.x or seven bushels to the acre; 

 and that tlie effect was that the bugs immedi- 

 ately loft his field, and his crop was saved, while 

 tlie wheat of his neighbors was nearly ruined 

 by them. He further states that "a neighbor 

 had a field of wheat adjoining his (ifr. IIopps's) 

 cornfield, in which the bugs worked badly. 

 Thiidving that, as soon as tlie wlieat was cut, 

 they would emigrate to his corn, he dropped a 

 handful of tiie gas-lime upon each hill of corn, 

 in the same manner as plaster is often dropped 

 niion com in the East. The consequence was 

 that the bugs did not attack the com i}i the 

 least." — Prairie Farmer. 



But, if gas lime keeps oiT Chinch Bugs, which 

 may or may not be the case, it appears that 

 coal-tar most certainly will not do so, as the 

 following oxperinient of Dr. Shimer'.s proves: 



May iWi, 1864—1 saturated some saw -dust with coal 

 tar, aud mixed some qiiick-lime among it, so that it 

 might be in a fiood coiulilicm tor handling, and sowed 

 it thickly broadeast o\er a purtiou of mv wheat-field, 

 where the bu^cs wiir very numerous. 



JIai/2~tJi—-l'.it!i. 1.SI14. — The bugs refuse to leave the 

 part of till licld wliere I sowed the tarred saw-dtist, »o 

 there is hut litilc lioiie of driving them from their once 

 chosen yiouuds, by the seasonable application of 

 strong-.simdling drugs. 



We have selected the above remedies from a 

 vast mass floating around in the various Agri- 

 cultural Journals, some of them utterly absurd 

 and irrational and others of very doubtful val- 

 idity, not because we have any personal know- 

 ledge of their efficiency, but because they appear 

 the most in accordance with analogy and the 

 most likely to prove practically successful. As 

 to a ridiculous proposal, put forth in the year 

 18Gi), with a great flourish of trumpets, by a 

 gentleman in the North-east corner of Illinois, 

 namely to destroy the Chinch Bug in the egg 

 state by pickling all the seed-wheat; it is suffi- 

 cient to observe that this insect does uot lay its 

 eggs upon the kernel of the ripe wheat, but 

 upon the roots of the young green wheat. Con- 

 sequently, to attempt to kill Chinch Bug eggs, 

 by doctoring the seed wheat, would be pretty 

 much like trying to kill the nits in a boy's head, 

 by applying a piece of sticking-iilaster to his 

 great toe. 



Recapitulation. 



W'c consider the following important points 

 to be firmly established: 



1st. Chinch Bugs hyberuate iii the perfect or 

 winged state in any old dry rubbi.sh, under dead 

 leaves, in old straw, in corn-shucks and corn- 

 stalks, among weeds in fence-corners, etc., etc. 

 Therefore all such substances should be bunted 

 up, as far as jiossible, in the spring. 



2ud. The earlier small grain can be sowed in 

 the spring, the more likely it is to escape the 

 Chinch Bug; for it will then get ripe before the 

 spring brooil of bugs has had time to become 

 fully developed at the expense of the grain. 



3d. The harder the ground is where the grain 

 is sowed, the less chance there is for the Chinch 

 Bug to penetrate to the roots of the grain and 

 lay its eggs thereon. Hence the importance of 

 fall-ploughing and using the roller upon land 

 that is loose and friable. And hence, if old 

 corn-ground is suflficienlly clean, it is a good 

 plan to harrow in a crop of small grain upon it 

 witliout ploughing it at all. 



•1th. A single heavy rain immediately checks 

 up the propagation of the Chinch Bugs. Con- 

 tinued heavy rains diminish their numbers most 

 materially. A long-continued wet season, such 

 as tlint of 18C5, almost sweeps the whole brood 



