968 I. M. Hawiry 
seed-corn maggot cannot easily be predicted; its first indication to the 
grower is usually the discovery of the maggots in beans that have failed 
to germinate. Since this is true, an efficient repellent or seed treatment 
would have to be used every wet year, which would make the cost for 
material and labor very high. Furthermore, it is difficult to find a material 
which does not injure the seed and yet has a killing or repellent effect on 
the insect. Maggots usually enter the bean between the cotyledons, and 
therefore, after the seed coat, which bears the treatment, is broken or cast 
off by the swelling of the seed, the tender plumule is again left unprotected. 
The writer has tried various materials as control measures, on a small 
scale, in the hope of finding something suitable for larger tests. The 
results of these experiments are recorded in table 4. 
In the experiments reported in table 4, the materials were placed either on 
the seed coat, on top of the soil, or in the row with the planted seed. These 
experiments were located in fields where bad infestations of maggots had 
just been found and where the flies were very numerous. Infestations 
were not large, however, as the plantings came between broods. Dry 
bordeaux mixture seemed the most promising of the materials tested, but 
on the whole the results of experiments in 1917 were not encouraging. 
In 1920, seed- and soil-treatment experiments were again conducted. 
A part of the experimental field which had not been under cultivation for 
several years, and which was covered with quack grass, was plowed, and 
the experiments were started here on June 4. At that time many females 
of H. cilicrura were mature and had been depositing eggs for several days. 
Beans were planted, following a rain of 0.25 inch, on June 3. It was 
noted that the flies had been more numerous on this part of the field than 
on the other parts which had been previously under cultivation, showing 
the attraction of the species to turned-under quack grass as a place for 
oviposition. Snakeheads, the evidence of maggot attack, were much more 
abundant here than in the main part of the field when counts were made 
on June 22. The results of the experiments of 1920 are given in table 5. 
None of the materials tested in 1920 gave promise of success in practical 
use. While in a few cases the number of injured plants was reduced, in 
no case did the seedlings entirely escape harm. Taking into consideration 
the difficulty of predicting infestations of the seed-corn maggot, it seems to 
be unwise to rely on control measures of this type in New York. 
The bait of sodium arsenite, water, and molasses, which was tried 
against the onion maggot by Sanders,’ was tested against H. cilicrura. On 
June 21, 1917, the material was sprinkled on the soil with a whisk broom, 
and pie tins containing it were placed in a row across the field. Flies were 
very numerous in this field and the second planting of beans had just been 
made, the first seeding having been destroyed. On the morning of June 
22, twenty-nine flies were found in the pans, together with many beneficial 
5 As stated in a general discussion reported in the Journal of Economic Entomology, vol. 8, p. 89, 1915, 
