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Since 1954 many Louisiana sugarcane growers have applied chlordane to the soil at planting time to control wireworms in light soils and a miscellaneous group of small animals in heavy soils. From field and laboratory studies it is concluded that, while beneficial effects of chlordane on sugarcane yields may sometimes be found. such effects are usually small and difficult to measure. Furthermore, soil application of chlordane reduces earthworm populations in cane fields. where small increases in sugarcane growth are associated with the application of chlordane to the soil, it seems likely that the stimulating effects of chlordane on plant growth may be at least as important as the control of any arthropod pests. Collembola and Acarina are the most abundant and widely distributed arthropods present in the sugarcane soils of Louisiana.

Laboratory studies of the susceptibility to insecticides of the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), were conducted during 1962–63. A technique for testing borer susceptibility to insecticides in the laboratory was developed. Newly hatched larvae were exposed to residual films of insecticides in 125-ml Erlenmeyer flasks for from 30 minutes to 5 hours before being transferred to an artificial diet. During the late summer of 1963 a high level of resistance to endrin was demonstrated in the laboratory in the progeny of field-collected sugarcane borers from Port Allen, Louisiana, where satisfactory borer control had not been obtained by applications of endrin earlier in the summer. Low levels of approximately 2-fold tolerance to endrin were found also in strains from Baton Rouge, Franklin, and Meeker, Louisiana. The Port Allen strain, which was highly resistant to endrin, was found to be quite resistant to endosulfan also, thus exhibiting cross resistance. The endrin-resistant and susceptible strains were approximately equally susceptible to azinphosmethyl and carbaryl.