85- 



ns no evidence of its value in protecting the country from an annual 

 recurrence of attack when meteorological conditions are favorable to 

 the breeding of the insect. This year, however, we have started our 

 cultures of this fungus with affected chinch bugs collected in the 

 fields in 1896, the material having in the meantime been kept in a 

 tight tin box in a dry room. It can not now be said by those who know 

 that the use of this fungus against the chinch bug is an experiment. 

 It will work satisfactorily in wet or moderately damp weather, but 

 will not do so when a drought is prevailing. 



Owing to the fact that wheat was almost universally sown late last 

 fall, and only the earlier sown fields were attacked bj^ the Hessian fly, 

 that insect has not claimed the attention this year that it did last. 



Over the northern portion of Ohio little or no wheat was so badly 

 injured last fall as to necessitate plowing under this spring, unless it 

 was sown before September 20, 1900, and comparatively little was 

 seriously injured, north of latitude 40°, unless sown prior to Septem- 

 ber 25, 1900. Wheat plants that had been killed last autumn by the 

 larvse of the fl}^ were collected in quantity from many sections of the 

 State and i)laced in the insectary in order to learn the probable con- 

 dition of the fly in the flelds in the spring of 1901. Only in two 

 instances did we secure Hessian fly in great numbers. In one of 

 these cases the wheat had been sown September 12, 1900, and the 

 other was from the experiment plats of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station at Wooster. In some instances we reared myriads of 

 the little parasite Polygnotus liiemalis Forbes, and the number of 

 these left no doubt of their efficiency in cheaking the increase of the 

 fly ; but in some other cases we reared only very few parasites, and 

 even less flies or none at all, so that it seems possible that there was 

 also another unknown influence which tended to reduce the number 

 of adult flies that emerged this spring. 



The rose-chafer [Macrodactylus subspinosus) has not been as abun- 

 dant over the State before in ten years, always in near proximity to 

 sandy lands. It is hardly w^orth while to state that we have found no 

 practical measures of suppression, but it may be stated that a mix- 

 ture of 5 pounds of arsenate of lead and 50 gallons of water had no 

 perceivable effect upon them. 



Two species of Epicauta [E. vittata and E. pennsylvanica) have been 

 unusually troublesome, and, as usually follows, a lack in the number 

 of grasshoppers. 



The strawberry weevil {Anthonomus signatus) worked serious dep- 

 redations in the strawberry fields of Scioto and adjacent counties, 

 fully one-half the crop having been destroyed by the pest. Informa- 

 tion of its ravages was not received in time to permit Mr. A. F. Bur- 

 gess, who was sent to investigate the outbreak, doing more than to 

 go over the infested fields and lay plans for work next year. 



The heart worm {Hydrijecia nitela) was reported as working consid- 

 erable injury in a wheat field in the. central part of the State, and a 



