CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 29 



to get too dry to afford them food and they began migrating to kafir, 

 sorghum, and grass fields, killing all crab-grass and panic grass in the 

 cornfields before they left them. Some bugs were observed in 

 alfalfa fields but at no time were they feeding on the alf alf a. 



During October and early November several chinch bugs were 

 observed on young wheat and a few eggs and young larvae of the third 

 generation were observed. They did not damage the wheat during 

 the late fall, and by the middle of November had left the wheat fields 

 for winter quarters. 



The kafir and cane were green until the middle of September, and 

 great numbers of chinch bugs were feeding on these two crops at this 

 time when the crops were harvested. They remained on these plants 

 and were put into the shock, where they were observed on several 

 occasions during the fall, but they all left before cold weather set in. 



During early fall a few bugs were to be found in nearly every situa- 

 tion on the farm — some in corn husks, some in alfalfa fields under 

 the leaves, and some among sparsely growing grasses, but most of 

 them were in the bunches of clump-forming grasses along fences, 

 roadsides, and railroad rights of way, in waste places, and in meadows. 

 That the weather conditions of the summer and fall were the most 

 favorable for the chinch bugs is indicated by the vast numbers that 

 went into winter quarters. Some of the bunches of the red sedge 

 grass (Andropogon scoparius) contained from 10,000 to 20,000 bugs, 

 this grass affording them the most attractive and favorable hibernat- 

 ing quarters. 



The severe cold weather of December, 1909, was disastrous to bugs 

 that failed to reach some of the clump-forming grasses, and very few 

 bugs in corn husks and among thin grasses survived the winter. 



SOUTHERN KANSAS AND NORTHERN OKLAHOMA, 1910. 



In southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma the spring of 1910 

 opened the last week of March with warm, dry weather. The chinch 

 bugs began to migrate to the wheat fields ; on March 24 the air was 

 full of flying adults and by March 26 the wheat fields were badly 

 infested. The weather turned much warmer about April 1, the chinch 

 bugs began mating, and by April 10 were depositing eggs about the 

 wheat roots; by April 20 the eggs were very abundant — hundreds 

 on the exposed roots of every plant. Not many eggs hatched during 

 April and the first 10 days of May on account of the cool weather, 

 but they hatched profusely during the next few days, so that by May 

 20 the fields were overrun with myriads of very young chinch bugs. 



Wheat throughout southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma had 

 been severely winterkilled, which, together with the exceedingly 

 dry spring, left the plants in a very weakened condition. The soil 

 was so dry during April and May that the small amount of rainfall 



