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.

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.