14 
SPECIAL BULLETIN NO. 8 
The food plants of the chinch bug are the grains and grasses. They feed by 
sucking out the sap, and when present in enormous numbers they can rapidly drain 
a thrifty plant. During a serious outbreak they become excessively abundant in 
wheat until that crop is cut, when they migrate to adjoining cornfields. 
Methods of Control 
No effective remedy is known for chinch bugs while working in wheat, but 
cornfields can be protected from invasion if "prompt and persistent action is taken. 
In dry weather an effective barrier can be made by preparing a dust furrow 
around the field or on the sides threatened with attack. This is done by plowing 
several furrows and harrowing the ground thoroly to a fine mulch, then plowing a 
dead furrow through the middle and dragging this with a log, making the sides as 
steep as possible. Holes about a foot in depth should be made with a post-hole 
digger in the bottom of the furrow at intervals of about a rod to serve as traps for 
the bugs. The furrow must be continually watched and kept in repair with a hoe. 
The bugs exposed directly to the sun and struggling to climb out of the dusty fur- 
row will be killed in great numbers by the heat while others will fall into the post- 
hole traps where they can be killed by kerosene. 
Road-Oil Barrier. — A much better protection consists of a narrow line of 
coal-tar or road-oil. The road-oil is cheaper than the coal-tar and need not be 
renewed so often. To make a barrier, remove as much vegetation as possible from 
a narrow strip of land along the border of the field, then plow two deep furrows in 
opposite directions along the strip, throwing the dirt together to make a ridge. Make 
the ridge smooth and compact with a roller. Post-holes a foot or more in depth 
and about fifty feet apart should be dug in the edge of the ridge next to the field 
from which the bugs will come. Then pour a narrow line of road-oil or coal-tar 
(if road-oil is not obtainable) on the top of the ridge, making sure that it touches 
the edge of every hole on the side toward the corn-field. 
This material may be poured from a watering-can with the sprinkler removed 
or from a coffee pot. The line should be at least an inch wide if road-oil is used, 
•but may be narrower if tar is used. If it is kept fresh by occasional renewal and 
free from dirt and rubbish, the bugs will not cross it but will crawl along the barrier — 
until they drop into the post-hole traps. It must be closely watched every day 
early and late as long as invasion threatens. Chinch-bugs on the outer rows of 
corn may be killed by spraying with a solution of cheap rosin soap using one pound 
of the soap to six gallons of water. 
The importance of clean cultural methods cannot be too strongly emphasized. 
Most important is the destruction of hibernating places. Grass and rubbish where 
the bugs find winter cover should be raked and burned or otherwise destroyed. 
Neglected land along fences and the edges of woodlands may become the source of 
serious trouble. 
