THE CHINCH BUG IN MAINE. 45 



plowed under, under masses of dead-leaves and rubbish of all 

 sorts, the bugs pass the late fall and winter months, lying appar- 

 ently dead during cold weather, but quickly coming into activity 

 during the warm days of late spring. 



REMEDIES. 



As the chinch bug works chiefly among grass crops in Maine, 

 many of the remedies employed against it in the West are prac- 

 tically worthless here. As the amount of injury during any 

 year depends partially on the number of bugs which pass the 

 preceding winter in safety, perhaps the best methods to use 

 against them are such as are easily applicable during the winter 

 months. The following methods, if applied before the ground 

 is covered with snow, would probably prove reasonably effective. 



1st. Burning. When there is considerable clover mixed 

 with the timothy or hungarian grass, the bugs are very likely 

 to winter over beneath the clover which borders for a few feet or 

 yards immediately upon the spot where they have stopped injur- 

 ing the grass. If such a strip be mowed closely by hand and 

 allowed to dry for a few days it may be burned over and quan- 

 tities of the bugs will be killed. If this burning be done after 

 the ground is frozen, little, if an}^, injury will thereby be done 

 to the grass. All rubbish such as dried grass and weeds at the 

 edges of the fields, brush heaps, dead leaves, bark and chips, 

 clumps of wild grasses, sedge grasses, etc., in nearby fields should 

 be burned as completely as possible. 



2d. Spraying. Chinch bugs are quickly killed by kerosene 

 or kerosene emulsion, but it is essential that it be thoroughly 

 applied. The bugs are so protected by the clover and grass that 

 it is almost impossible to reach them by ordinary spraying. 

 Sprinkling freely over the infested spots will usually be efifectual 

 although it may kill the grass also. Clumps of wild grass or 

 sedges in which careful examination shows the bugs to be 

 abundant m.ight be sprinkled thoroughly with kerosene and then 

 burned, thus killing the bugs which had crowded deep down 

 among the bases of the plants, where the flames alone might not 

 reach them. 



3rd. Ploiving. Where bugs are found in considerable num- 

 bers at the edges of spots which they have eaten over, they may 

 be destroyed by plowing under the strip in which they are hiding. 



