130 MAINE STATFO COLLEGE 



a, Clean Culture. — As the Chinch-bug liybernatos under rubbish, 

 etc., and those that survive the winter determine the number to 

 lay eggs the following season ; hence all ru])bish and other material 

 about the fields under which they can find shelter should be 

 removed . 



6, Ploughing. — When a grain field is l)adly infested it should be 

 ploughed deep immediately after harvest before the bugs can 

 migrate to adjoining crops.. The land should be ploughed at least 

 six inches deep and turned as nearly upside-down as possible. By 

 this means a great many young bugs will be destroyed. We do 

 not know whether the bugs have attacked grain fields in western 

 Maine. This remedy Avould be applicable to a meadow as well as 

 grain field if there was no objection to breaking it up. It is well 

 to harrow and roll the land after ploughing to harden the surface 

 and make it more difficult for the bugs to crawl out. If the bugs 

 are found very numerous along the border of a meadow or in 

 small patches in the field it would be well to plough these places 

 early in the season and in two or three weeks sow to a late crop. 

 Fall plowing is advisable, and if rubbish, straw, manure, etc., are 

 placed on the field the bugs will crawl under it for shelter and be 

 ploughed under. In plowing the use of a jointer is advised as it 

 causes the surface of the ground to be more thoroughly buried. 



c, Burning. — When the grass or grain stubble is dense enough 

 or dry enough, the entire field should be burned over after harvest. 

 If the bugs are found in a meadow in the fall, that you wish for 

 grass the following season, and the stubble will not burn, then 

 wind-rows of straw or swamp-hay should be put across the field. 

 The bugs will seek shelter under them, when they should be 

 burned early in the morning or late in the evening. The burning 

 should be carried to all other places where they are known to be 

 hybernating. 



cZ, Miscellaneous Remedies. — Early planting and heavy sowing 

 and goodi fertilization have been found important aids in the West 

 to hold this pest in check. The Chinch-bugs only feed upon mem- 

 bers of the grass family and rotation of grain with buckwheat 

 clover, peas, beans, or other root crops would starve them out. 

 In the West they sow strips of millet, of which the bugs are very 

 fond, and after they gather upon it it is cut and the ground imme- 

 diately plowed deep and rolled. Various insecticides have been 

 used with more or less success, but they are omitted as perhaps of 

 no application to checking the insect in Maine. 



