

CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER.. 31 



affected both crops and chinch bugs to such an extent that wheat was 

 almost a failure and the numbers of the bugs were greatly reduced. 

 The winter wheat which was seeded in September and October, 1910, 

 was seeded in a very dry soil; very little of it sprouted. A few 

 localities were favored with a shower of rain in September which 

 sprouted the grain, and the bottom fields along the rivers and creeks 

 contained enough moisture to sprout the grain and produce a fair 

 crop. As a result of the drought, however, very little wheat 

 matured on the uplands. 



The chinch bugs went into hibernation in a very weakened condi- 

 tion because the grasses had dried up in the fall. Many of them did 

 not reach their usual winter quarters but stopped in almost any place 

 they could find. Many hibernated in trash in alfalfa fields where a 

 small percentage succeeded in living through the winter. The death 

 rate of hibernating bugs was greater than in any previous winter 

 included in this study; in some of the bunches of Andropogon 60 per 

 cent of the bugs were dead. When the first warm days of spring 

 occurred the few bugs that were left were very inactive and the 

 migration to green fields, which had been so noticeable in former 

 years, was lacking. However, there was a migration during some 

 very hot days in the latter part of April — over a month late. The 

 dying of the bugs during the winter was probably due to two causes, 

 one being the starved condition of the bugs when they went into 

 hibernation and the other the hot days during the winter followed by 

 the very cold days in the spring. During these hot days in the middle 

 of winter the bunches of grass would be swarming with the bugs and 

 the very next day the thermometer would register 8 to 10 degrees 

 below zero. In spite of all these adverse conditions many of the 

 bugs lived to infest the fields in the spring. 



The failure of wheat caused the farmers to plant other crops in 

 many of these fields, but some of them were left standing until May 

 in the hope that a crop would be produced. The bugs reached the 

 few fields that were left, damaged the plants considerably, and de- 

 posited numbers of eggs. Many wheat fields were seeded to oats after 

 the wheat failed, thus leaving the few wheat plants growing in the 

 fields for the young bugs to feed upon. At no time could young bugs 

 or eggs be found on the oat plants. Notwithstanding the fact that 

 numbers of farmers lost several plantings of corn in 1910 by planting 

 the infested wheat field to corn, hundreds of acres of corn were planted 

 in such fields in the spring of 1911, only to be destroyed later. There 

 were areas of 8 to 10 square miles that did not contain an acre of 

 wheat after the middle of May, all of the fields having been planted 

 to other crops. In these localities where the wheat was missing the 

 bugs were also missing, and where the wheat was plentiful the bugs 

 were very plentiful and did considerable damage to adjacent corn. 



