chinch bug

Any of various insects of the family Blissidae that feed chiefly on grasses, especially Blissus leucopterus of North America, which damages grain crops and turf grasses.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

chinch bug

1. (Animals) a black-and-white tropical American heteropterous insect, Blissus leucopterus, that is very destructive to grasses and cereals in the US: family Lygaeidae

2. (Animals) a related and similar European insect, Ischnodemus sabuleti

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

chinch′ bug`

a small lygaeid bug, Blissus leucopterus, that feeds on corn, wheat, and other grains.

[1775–85, Amer.]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

chinch bug - small black-and-white insect that feeds on cereal grasses

Blissus leucopterus

lygaeid, lygaeid bug - a true bug: usually bright-colored; pest of cultivated crops and some fruit trees

Blissus, genus Blissus - chinch bugs

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It was a hard bargain, but one that Wade could afford to take up, for if the wheat were to freeze out, or if the grasshoppers should eat it, or the chinch bugs ruin it, or a hail storm beat it down into the mud, or if any of the many hatreds Stepmother Nature holds out toward those trusting souls who would squeeze a living from her hard hands--if any of these misfortunes should transpire, he would be out nothing but labor, and that was the one thing he and Martin could afford to risk.

View in context

Survival of different life stages of the southern chinch bug (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) following insecticidal applications.

Effect of plant growth regulators on Blissus insularis (Hemiptera: Blissidae)

The fever of land speculation and the chinch bug alighting like locusts completed the wheat devastation.

Creating Dairyland

The warmer the temperature, the faster the chinch bug completes its life cycle.

Chapter 15 Insects

The subterranean Chinch Bug, a new pest of cassava.

Evaluacion de dos cepas comerciales de entomonematodos como agentes de control de Cyrtomenus bergi Froeschner (Hemiptera: Cydnidae)

It has excellent mealybug [Tridiscus sporoli (Cockerell) or Trionymus spp.) and buffalograss mite [Eriophyes (Aceria) slykhuisi (Hall)] resistance, and high to moderate chinch bug (Blissus occiduus Barber) resistance (Heng-Moss et al., 2002).

Registration of 'Cody' buffalograss

When the chinch bugs come along all ready to eat up my corn, these little fellows will take care of 'em." He chuckles, "There's nothing a quail likes as much as a chinch bug.

My ninety acres

The chinch bug, once the plague of pioneer farmers, is making an unwelcome comeback on modern-day corn and other grain crops.

A pest that's a chinch to return

Millard was awarded a patent on a chinch bug plow device.

Need leads on Decorah products

The southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis Barber, is considered the most damaging insect pest of this grass (Kerr 1966; Reinert & Kerr 1973; Reinert & Portier 1983; Crocker 1993).

Susceptibility of Blissus insularis (heteroptera: hemiptera: blissidae) populations in Florida to bifenthrin and permethrin

Studies have shown that chinch bug numbers are largest on dry, sunny sites where there is a significant thatch layer and a large population of fine fescues.

Chapter 17 Integrated pest management

Muller]}, spring melting out [caused by Drechslera poae (Baudys) Shoem], seedling damping off (caused by Pythium, Rhizoctonia, and Fusarium spp.), and chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus hirtus Montandon).

Registration of 'BlueChip' Kentucky bluegrass