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There are a great many bugs injurious to vegetation, among them the
little chinch bugs.

They are so small, each one no larger than a plant louse, that you would
not think they could do much harm.

One of them could not, but when they appear in millions, then they are
terrible.

Here is one magnified to show the white wing covers with black markings.

[Illustration]

Would you believe that this tiny insect has destroyed millions of
dollars' worth of grain in the United States?

What, Charlie? you should think they could be killed out? That is a very
difficult task. You see they are so small, and they breed so fast. There
are two broods of them in one year, and when they have eaten one grain
field they start off, millions strong, to another.

Of course a great many methods have been tried for getting rid of them,
and one very curious method you will like to hear about.

You know insects are subject to diseases.

What, Nell, you never heard of a sick bug?

Yet it seems they are sick sometimes, and certain diseases kill them.
Chinch bugs are not as healthy in some places as in others.

There is a contagious disease that kills them off in very great numbers.

Ned says he can guess what remedy the people apply to the healthy chinch
bugs that are eating their grain.

Yes, they introduce diseased chinch bugs into the grain fields with the
healthy ones. The contagion spreads and the bugs die!

There is another way of getting rid of some kinds of troublesome
insects. That is, to introduce an insect not injurious to vegetation,
that will prey upon the injurious ones.

THE WELL PROTECTED STINK BUG

One of the bugs we know the best and like the least is the stink bug.

It deserves its name.

John says he had one on his hand this morning.

How did you like it, John?

Did any of you ever pick berries where these bugs were?

See what a face Mollie is making! It is very evident that _she_ has.

[Illustration: RED RASPBERRY.]

What a nasty taste they give the delicious fruit.

Even the flavor of the red raspberry is spoiled if one of these bugs
pollutes it.

What makes them smell so? May is asking.

The disgusting odor is caused by a liquid that is ejected out of little
pores on the under side of the thorax.

The bug can eject this liquid when it pleases.

Most members of the bug order can eject a disagreeable liquid, though
few of them do it so successfully as the stink bug.

If the s