oe DEPARTMENT BULLETIN 179. 
MISCELLANEOUS ENEMIES. 
The Rocky Mountain toad (Bufo lentiginosus woodhousei) has 
been recorded by the Biological Survey as feeding upon various 
species of Chlorochroa, 
A half-grown chicken devoured 8 adults during a single day, when 
placed in a large outdoor cage with these insects. It has been com- 
monly reported by farmers that a diet of grain bugs often kills 
barnyard fowls, but these reports have not been verified. 
CONTROL METHODS. 
DESTRUCTION OF HIBERNATING QUARTERS. 
The obvious method for controlling the grain bug is the destruc- 
tion of the adults when they are concentrated in their hibernating 
quarters. This is best accomplished in the late autumn, during the 
winter, or in the early spring by plowing under or burning all weeds 
and rubbish in and about cultivated fields. This apples particularly 
to the dead Russian thistle in abandoned fields and along irrigation 
ditches, check ridges, and fence rows; in fact, all locations where the 
accumulations of weeds or rubbish afford suitable hibernating quar- 
ters. Even in the large-scale farming operations which predominate 
throughout most of the territory infested by the insect, it is possible 
to carry out these measures of control as a good farming practice 
which contributes to the destruction of weeds and of various species 
of noxious insects. Much of the local infestation results from hiber- 
nating adults that wintered in the same field or its vicinity and which 
could have been destroyed by the farmer with an expenditure of very 
little additional labor. In many instances, however, the grain bug 
adults migrate from considerable distances and this circumstance 
necessitates a systematic clean-up community campaign in badly in- 
fested areas. Objections often are offered to control measures simi- 
lar to the foregoing, because of the time and expense involved in 
their application, but it must be borne in mind that any extra efforts 
required to prevent insect depredations are repaid manyfold in the 
increased production of the crops. The measures recommended here- 
in for the control of the grain bug should be included in good farm 
practice at any event and can be carried out during a time when 
farm labor and equipment ordinarily are idle. 
TRAP CROPS. 
Early in the season the immature stages of the first generation of 
the grain bug are concentrated on the tender plants of Russian thistle 
and other native plants growing in the waste areas of cultivated fields. 
At this time the multiplication of the species may be restricted greatly 
by spraying these areas with a strong insecticide or chemical, thus 
killing the insects and their obnoxious food plants in one operation. 
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