April, '15j 



ENTOMOLOGISTS' PROCEEDINGS 



225 



distributed last year in the control of grasshoppers, has to my knowl- 

 edge, found no instance of it killing birds. Of course, if it were placed 

 out in handful lots, as was formerly recommended, there probably 

 would be no question about it killing birds, but when the mash is 

 distributed in such a manner that twenty pounds will cover five acres, 

 there is absolutely no danger. We have had chickens, turkeys, and 

 hogs following right after us while sowing it in alfalfa fields. They 

 do not get enough to harm them. 



Mk. W. C. O^Kane: If army worms are feeding in corn say two 

 or three feet high, of course during the da3rtime they are often curled 

 up in what is left of the leaves of the corn. Suppose you have six or 

 eight or ten army worms per stalk of corn, as I think we had, and they 

 were. down in these unfolding leaves, would it be necessary either to 

 get the poisoned bran mash down into these leaves or to get some On 

 the stem or stalk of the corn? 



Mr. George A. Dean: In most of our work the corn was not 

 nearly so high as you mention in your case. If the corn were fairly 

 large we tried to sow the bran mash so that some of it not only fell 

 down in the curl, but also lodged on the blades, and in many cases the 

 worms ceased at once to eat the corn and ate the bran mash. We 

 also noticed in many cases that where the bran mash was scattered 

 along the base of the plant they would leave the corn and eat the 

 poisoned bait. This corn was not very high. If the corn were large 

 and you could not get the particles of bran mash on it conveniently, 

 I would sow it on the ground along the row so that they would find it 

 when they moved on to another plant. 



Mr. E. p. Felt: Do you consider it safe to sow the poisoned bran 

 mash in fairly liberal quantities so that it will drop down in the leaves 

 of the corn? 



Mr. George A. Dean: I have no data on this at all. I simply 

 know that our corn was so small that there was absolutely no danger, 

 and I believe this will be true in any case where the corn is not over two 

 feet high. If the corn were large, say in the silk, there might be, in 

 case the bran mash were sown rather liberally, some danger, if enough 

 of it lodged down in behind the blades, of it proving harmful in case 

 the corn were used for feed. 



Mr. W. S. Regan: During the past summer we had a rather seri- 

 ous outbreak of the army worm in eastern Massachusetts. We used 

 bran mash to kill the worms and we did hear of some cases where 

 birds were killed by the bran mash. I know of one case where a farmer 

 reported having found 11 blackbirds after he had scattered the bran 

 mash over the fields; it also killed some of his chickens and turkeys. I 

 did not see these. 



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