170 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
August, 1919 
THE INSECT PAGE 
Conducted by the Department of Economic Entomology College of 
Agriculture 
Reduce the White Grubs 
This is the year when the greater 
part of the white grubs become full 
grown. They may now be found 
in cells in the soil in the pupa or 
resting stage and in about a month 
will change to the adult May beetles 
or June bugs. These will remain 
in the soil until spring when they 
will come forth to start another 
generation of grubs. 
Plow th<e infested field deeply as 
soon as possible and thoroughly 
disk and harrow to break up tin' 
cells in the soil and crush the ten- 
der pupae and newly formed 
beetles. 
L. G. Gentner. 
The Corn Ear Worm 
Every year the corn ear worm 
causes serious losses to corn in this 
state. Especially is this true of 
sweet corn. 
The adult moths or millers are 
yellowish to olive green in color, 
with darker markings. They have 
a wing expanse of about iy 2 inches. 
They begin flying at dusk and lay 
their eggs on the silks of the corn, 
also on weeds. The young larvae 
which hatch from these eggs feed 
on the silks and then burrow down 
into the ear and feed on the young 
kernels. The larvae vary a great 
deal in color, but are generally 
brownish or greenish with broad 
longitudinal stripes. When the 
larvae are full grown they burrow 
into the soil where they change to 
ihe punae or resting stages from 
which the adult moths later emerge. 
There are perhaps three genera- 
tions in Wisconsin, the last spend- 
ing the winter in the resting stage 
4 to 6 inches below the surface of 
the soil. 
Control Measures 
No practical control has yet been 
found for this pest on field corn, 
but on sweet corn, or corn raised 
for roasting ears or seed the iu- 
jury may be considerably reduced 
by dusting the silks with lead ar- 
senate powder as soon as they ap- 
pear. The treatment should be 
repeated every three or four days 
as egg laying continues over quite 
a period. The dust may either he 
blown into the silks with a dust 
gun or dusted on through a chees- 
cloth sack. 
By thorough and deep plowing 
and disking sometimes during the 
late fall or winter the greater part 
of the overwintering pupae may 
be destroyed. This will greatly 
reduce next years infestation, and 
will also kill many other injurious 
insects. 
L. G. Gentner 
The Control of House Ants 
Most of the common house ants 
of Wisconsin are spoken of as 
large or small black ants, reddish 
brown ants, and tiny yellowish 
ants. All these kinds or species 
of ants usually come from out- doors 
and must he killed in one of three 
ways: — (1) by mechanical destruc- 
tion, which is rather tedious and 
not always practical; (2) by poi- 
soning, which takes the most time 
and, may not always prove suc- 
cessful; (3) by fumigation with 
carbon hi- sulphide where the nest 
can be reached. This treatment is 
not always dependable if the nest 
runs under the cement walk, a 
house- wall or a stump. 
Mechanical measures consist of 
laying greasy bones or sugared 
sponges in the ant trails and when 
the ants have gathered in numbers 
plunging the bone or sponge into 
hot water ; or digging up their nests 
and widely scattering them among 
the chickens. Ant-proof cupboards, 
food safes, or the removing of at- 
tractive food from the reach of the 
ants will usually cause the ants to 
not work in the house. Where the 
nest is not easily found, poison 
sweets may be set along the trails 
so that the ants will carry the poi- 
son to the hidden nest and feed it 
to the laying queen and brood be- 
fore they are themselves destroyed 
by the poison. This method will 
in time completely do away with 
the ants as they are attracted to the 
bait. 
Use tartar emetic, 1 part to 10 
of sugar dissolved in 100 parts of 
water. Spread this on chips of wood 
or glass and place on ants trails out 
of the way of pet animals. It may 
be also combined with cold lard or 
a similar grease so that it will not 
evaporate rapidly. Tn case tartar 
emetic cannot lie secured, an equ- 
allv effective poison can he made by 
using 3 grams of sodium arsenite 
(soluble') in a spoonful of water, 
added to 2 lbs. of sugar dissolved 
in % pint hot water. The poison 
syrup may lie soaked on bits of 
sponge and placed along the ant 
trails. 
Where the trail of ants is easily 
followed to a nest in the soil, car- 
bon bi-sulphide may be applied, 
preferably towards dusk when 
