MR. GRAVATT: Just a word. We had a conference in Beltsville all day Sunday about the recent developments on the oak wilt. There has been very extensive spread in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland this year. We are very much alarmed about the situation. The Chinese chestnut is very severely affected. We have learned that in Missouri. One year there were three Chinese chestnuts killed by the fungus, the next year 60. The oak wilt is a serious threat to the chestnut orchards. Life History and Control of the Pecan Spittle Bug STEWART CHANDLER, _Associate Entomologist, Ill. Nat. History Survey, Urbana, Ill., Consulting Entomologist, Southern Illinois University_ Since it was a year ago that this subject of spittle bug was first brought to the attention of the Northern Nut Growers Association, it might be well to review briefly the high lights of that report. I told you at the annual meeting at Urbana, something of the life history. There are two broods, one appearing in June and one in July. The adult is a small sucking bug about an eighth to a quarter inch long. The species at that time was uncertain but now has been determined by specialists in that group as _Cercoptera achatina_ Germ. This insect, I reported, is not the same as the one occurring on meadow and other field crops, not only the species but the genus being different. The distribution was found to be in every area where pecans are grown. As to its importance I pointed out that in Illinois it had become very serious in the past three or four years, apparently causing a marked reduction in crop. Control measures were directed against the nymphal stage, which is protected by the spittle which the insect emits continuously while feeding. Three insecticides were tested at Anna, Illinois, Lindane, parathion, and tetra ethyl pyro phosphate, known as TEPP. Lindane proved to be approximately 95% efficient, parathion roughly 60% and TEPP about 10%. In 1952 the work was resumed in the orchard of Conrad Casper near Anna, Illinois and was begun at the Richard Best place at Eldred, 175 miles northwest. In 1952 five phases of the work with pecan spittle bug were undertaken as follows: 1. A study of the importance of the pecan spittle bug. 2. The hibernation of the insect. 3. Life history and occurrence of the various stages and broods of the insect in relation to nut development of the pecan. 4. Control measures. 5. Varietal susceptibility to the insect. 1. Importance of the insect _Hibernation Studies_ To learn to what extent if any the insect reduces the crop of pecans, terminal shoots from trees sprayed the previous season with three different materials were compared with the unsprayed check. These are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Pecan spittle bug effect of 1951 sprays on terminal shoots in spring of 1952