1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
515 
The Chinch Bug. 
BY PROF. C. V. KILBY. 
In the article last month, I endeavored to 
convey to the readers of the American Agri¬ 
culturist that which it is most important for 
the farmer to understand relative to the 
characteristics and habits of the Chinch Bug. 
Let me now briefly consider some of the more 
practical phases of the Chinch Bug question. 
Natural Eueinies. 
The unsavory oder, and we may assume, 
flavor, of this little Blissus doubtless deters 
many predaceous animals from attacking it. 
At all events, it is a 
fact that the species 
is less influenced by 
parasitic and pre¬ 
daceous checks than 
most other insects 
injurious to agricul¬ 
ture. A few Lady¬ 
birds and Lace-wing 
Flies ( Chrysopa) 
feed upon it; but its 
most efficient insect 
. 1 
enemies are, per- 
haps, the ants, !• insidious flower-bug. 
which destroy the eggs, and some of its 
nearer relations among the Half-winged 
Bugs. The Insidious Flower-bug ( Anthocosis 
insidiosus ), fig. 1, a little fellow that is very 
apt to be mistaken for the Chinch Bug, and 
the Many-banded Robber (Harpactor cinctus), 
fig. 2, are the most common and prominent 
of these. A few birds, and especially the 
common quail, when hard pushed for food in 
winter, are known to feed upon it. 
Bogus Chinch Bugs. 
As there are a few other true Bugs which, 
on account of real or imagined resemblance 
to the genuine Chinch Bug in size, odor or 
appearance, are apt to be mistaken for it, I 
give herewith illustrations of two of them. 
The False Chinch Bug ( Nysius destructor ), 
fig. 3, is the one most easily confounded 
with it, and which, being a very general 
feeder, and quite common in our gardens, 
gives rise to the statements about Chinch 
Bugs injuring 
other crops than 
grasses and cere¬ 
als. The Ash- 
gray Leaf - bug 
(Piesma cinerea), 
fig. 4, is often 
found feeding 
upon the same 
plants as the 
Chinch Bug. 
These three spe¬ 
cies belong to three different genera, and 
a careful comparison of the figures will enable 
one to distinguish them—always bearing in 
mind that the hair-lines accompanying the 
engravings indicate the real length of each. 
Means of Copiug with the Pest. 
These naturally fall into two categories; 
those which are preventive in their nature, 
and those which aim at the direct destruction 
of the insect. Various plans to thwart its 
injuries have been either suggested or at¬ 
tempted. Most of them, however, are of 
very doubtful utility, and I shall here treat 
only of such as it will undoubtedly pay to 
follow, referring for a fuller discussion of the 
whole subject to the article on this insect in 
my seventh Missouri Report (1875), and to 
Fig. 2.- 
a ■» b 
-MANY-BANDED ROBBER. 
Fig. 3. —FALSE CHINCH BUG 
b, pupa; c, mature bug. 
Bulletin 5, U. S. Entomological Commission, 
by Prof. Thomas (1879). 
The following summary of the direct 
remedies is from the Missouri Report: 
“ When a field of wheat, or barley, or rye is 
once overrun with Chinch Bugs, man is, in 
the majority of cases, powerless before the 
unsavory host, 
and his only 
hope is in time¬ 
ly rains. The 
great majority 
of noxious in¬ 
sects may be 
controlled even 
at the last hour, 
but a few—and 
among them is 
the Chinch Bug 
—defy our efforts when once they are in full 
force upon us. There are several applica¬ 
tions that will kill the insect when brought 
in contact with it, and I have known a few 
rows of corn to be saved by the copious ap¬ 
plication of simple hot water ; but the ap- 
lication of all such direct remedies becomes 
impracticable on the scale in which they are 
needed in the grain fields of the West. Irri¬ 
gation, where it can be applied, and it can be 
in much of the territory in the vicinity of 
the Rocky Mountains, where the insect com¬ 
mits such sad havoc, and with a little effort 
in many regions in the heart of the Mississippi 
Valley—is really the only available, practical 
remedy, after the bugs have commenced 
multiplying in the spring. I ivish to lay 
particular stress on this matter of irrigation, 
believing, as I do, that it is an effectual anti¬ 
dote against this pest, and that by overflow¬ 
ing a grain field for a couple of days, or by 
saturating the ground foi as many more in 
the month of May, we may effectually prevent 
its subsequent injuries. In the article on 
Rocky Mountain Locust, I may have some¬ 
thing more to say on this matter of irrigation. 
We cannot at the critical moment expect 
much aid from.its natural enemies, for these 
are few, and attack it mostly in the winter¬ 
time. We must, therefore, in our warfare 
with this pest, depend mainly on preventive 
measures where irrigation is impossible.” 
I have found no occasion to change my 
opinion as to the value and potency of irri¬ 
gation as a remedy for Chinch Bug injuries— 
a remedy, too, that is within the reach of 
most farmers, for there are few who might 
not, with the aid of proper windmills, obtain 
the water requisite for irrigating their fields 
at the needed time, while many have natural 
irrigating facilities. I 
have repeatedly laid 
stress in my writings on 
the importance of irri¬ 
gation in combating 
several of our worst in¬ 
sect enemies, and, aside 
from its benefits in this 
direction, every recur¬ 
rence of a drouthy year, 
such as the present,- in 
large portions of the 
United States, convinces 
me of its importance as 
a means of guarding 
against failure of crops from excessive drouth. 
I am glad to know that many farmers, and 
especially small fruit growers in the vicinity 
of New York, are preparing in one way or 
another for-irrigation whenever it becomes 
Fig. 4. —ASH-GRAT 
LEAF-BUG. 
necessary, and I was pleased to hear Dr. 
Hexamer, at the late meeting of the American 
Pomological Society, urge a general system of 
irrigation as the most profitable investment 
the cultivator can make in a climate subject 
to such periods of drouth as ours is known to 
be. When it comes to prevention, a great 
deal may be done during the winter season 
in burning the hibernating bugs, and as re¬ 
marked elsewhere : “I cannot lay too much 
stress on the importance of winter work in 
burning corn-stalks, old boards, and all kinds 
of grass, weeds, rubbish, and litter around 
grain fields, and even the leaves in the ad¬ 
jacent woods, in and under all of which the 
little pest hibernates. Next to drowning out 
the rascals, cremation is undoubtedly the 
most effectual mode of destruction. Next, 
let the spring wheat be sown as early as 
possible, and the ground rolled. The rolling 
will apply equally well to the culture of win¬ 
ter wheat, though I would not advise the 
early fall planting of the last in sections 
where it is likely to suffer from Hessian Fly, 
for reasons not pertinent in this connection. 
Sow thickly, as the more the ground is 
shaded the less the Chinch Bug likes it. If 
in late winter the bugs are known to be 
numerous so as to bode future injury—and 
the fact can be easily ascertained by the ill- 
savored odor they send up from com shocks, 
and by their general presence in the winter¬ 
ing places mentioned—it will be well to plant 
no spring wheat or barley. In short, just in 
proportion as we adopt an intelligent and 
cleanly system of culture, just in that pro¬ 
portion will the Chinch Bug become harm¬ 
less ; it is, in great part, and in its more 
serious aspects, a result of slovenly husban¬ 
dry, and will lose its threatening character 
in the more Western States, as it has in those 
east of us, just as fast as more careful and 
intelligent husbandry becomes the fashion. 
South-Western Agriculture. 
BY G. C. SWALLOW, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, MIS¬ 
SOURI UNIVERSITY. 
In attempting to give the readers of the 
American Agriculturist an idea of South- 
Western Agriculture, it may be well to 
show first how our agriculture differs from 
that of the Nortli and South, and that of the 
Far West or the “ Arid Region.” 
The “Arid Region,” which commences 
about 100° west longitude in Texas, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Dakota, extends westward to 
the Pacific, save in Oregon, Washington Ter¬ 
ritory, and some other small areas, has a sys¬ 
tem of agriculture rendered peculiar by the 
lack of sufficient rain for the systems prevail¬ 
ing farther east. 
In this region we find three distinguishing 
features : First—Grazing is the leading busi¬ 
ness. Immense herds of cattle and horses, 
and flocks of sheep numbering millions, usu- 
ually live the year round, and thrive well on 
the native grasses of the broad prairies and 
mountain valleys. The beef and mutton 
made on these wild grasses alone, are among 
the best produced in the country. Occasion¬ 
ally a severe winter, like the last one, causes 
great loss, since but few provide food for the 
exceptionally cold seasons. It should be noted 
that the winters are quite as favorable to 
grazing in Montana, as farther south in Wy¬ 
oming and Colorado. The old ranchmen 
usually cut hay for severe winters. It will 
keep perfectly well in ricks for many years, 
