89 



THE PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE 

 CHINCH BUG IN ILLINOIS * 



BY S. A. FORBES. 



For three successive years the chinch bug has been extraordi- 

 narily destructive in Southern Illinois, gradually extending the 

 area of its investment, until now it occupies there the larger part 

 of thirty counties. 



Reports of its occurrence in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin 

 led us in July to a careful search for it in Northern Illinois; and 

 there also, especially in the counties of Lake, Winnebago, Stephen- 

 son, and Lee, it was found locally numerous, and occasionally de- 

 cidedly injurious to corn and oats adjoining wheat and barley. It 

 has freely bred there this season, in both imnier and spring wheat 

 and in barley; and, as these ripened, has made its way on foot 

 into corn and oats adjoining. From some of the western counties 

 of the State, noticeably from Rock Island county, it is also reported 

 present in great numbers, and injurious to both wheat and corn; 

 while many correspondents throughout Central and Western Illinois- 

 have notified me of its appearance in numbers to attract attention 

 and to threaten serious injury in the near future. 



The weather conditions in Northern, Southern, and Western Illi- 

 nois last year, and throughout the State this season, have been 

 eminently favorable to the multiplication of the chinch bug; and 

 if these continue unchanged there is great danger that the larger 

 part of the State may be overrun by it another season. In other 

 words, the agricultural interest of this State is threatened with a 

 loss of possibly fifty million dollars in a single yearf — a condition 

 of affairs which clearly constitutes an emergency calling for the 

 use of every resource of knowledge, enterprise, and industry which 

 can be brought to bear; but especially demanding intelligent jom/ 

 action on a common plan of defense. While individual farmers 



*Thl8 article, published In 1887 as a bulletin of the office, is here reprinted for a wider 

 circulation than the original edition of one thojisand copies made possible. 



tThe damage done by this insect to the corn crop alone in Illinois exceeded twenty-two million 

 dollars In 1874, according to the careful calculations made by Dr. Cyrus Thomas. (See 7th Rep. St. 

 Ent. 111., p. 17.) 



