Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1874 — The Chinch-Bug. [ARTICLE]

The Chinch-Bug.

Prof. C. V. Riley, the State Entomologist of Missouri, thus, in a recent number of the St. Louis Republican, epitomizes tlie'information concerning the chinch-bug: The chinch-bug injures by suction, not by biting. It winters in the perfect winged state, mostly dormant, principally in the old rubbish, such as dead leaves, corn-shucks, corn-stalks and under weeds and prostrate fence-rails and boards that generally surround grain fields; also, in whatever other sheltered situation it can get in adjacent woods: hence the importance of fighting the pest in the winter-time by burning it with its aforementioned shelter. Such burning will not destroy all the dormant hosts, but will practically render the species harmless—especially where whole communities combine to practice it. It issues from its winter quarters during the first balmy days of spring, when those females which were impregnated the previous fall, -and which arc most apt to survive the winter, commences ovipositing at once, if suitable conditions are at hand. Others take readily to wing, and scatter over our fields, attracted by preference to grain growing in loose and dry soil, into which they - iienctratc to eonsign their eggs. The eggs are deposited on the roots, and the young bugs, which are red, remain underground, sucking the roots during the early part of their lives, or until they are forced from necessity to travel from one plant to another. These springhatched bugs, constituting the first brood, do not as a rule acquire wings till after wheat is cut. It is, therefore, during and just after wheat harvest that they congregate and travel in such immense swarms as to attract attention. In July, as these acquire wings, they scatter over grass, late grain and corn fields, where they lay their eggs; but the second brood, hatching from these eggs, attract less attention and do less injury than did the first, because of its more scattered nature and the greater maturity and resisting power of its food-plants. Anything that will prevent the mother bug from getting at the roots of the grain will prevent the injury of her progeny; hence the importance in this connection of fall plowing and usin£ the roller upon land that is loose and friable; and hence, if old corn ground is sufficiently clean, it is a good plan to harrow in a crop of small grain upon it without plowing at all. The earlier, also, that wheat gets well st arted and matures the less it will suffer; because it may be harvested before the bugs acquire their greatest growth and power for harm; hence, and from the greater compactness of the ground, winter wheat suffers less than spring wheat. Heavy rains are—destructive to the chinch-bug; hence, if such occur in the fall, the farmer may plant with little fear of injury the following year, while if they occur in spring he need' suffer no anxiety, so far as chinch-bugs are concerned; hence, also, where irrigation is practicable, the pest may at all times bo overcome. It injures no other plants than grasses and cereals. In its migration from field to field it may be checked by n lineof far poured on the ground,.or by deep furrows or'trenches,' but the tar must be kept soft and the surface of the furrows friable and pulverized.