Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-10

INSECT INVASION

We rpblished in q recent number nm art;eIa ba.5aa
Vegetable Invasion" in which attempted to exhibit
the power of the minor plants interfere with and
throw the works and plans Of men.
The accounts from many parts Of the Northern States
of the rayages OF the grasshopper (which we have here
toore noticed have led to consider the power az the
minor insects for human annoyance and injury Of man
kind. Man fence out the large animals and protect
his fields from their nroad but how shall he prevent the
assaults Of the puny grasshopper In Chauauque
y New York. alone, the loss from grasshoppers mustbe
estimated at hundreds Of thousands Of dollars They have
literally swept the face of the country of every green
thing Grass grain, and garden vegetables have shared
the same Tate The cattle almost amished for want
OF ood and half the stock in the county will have to be
sold OIL from sheer inability to keep them The same
scourge has been experienced in Erie Lewis and other
counties, and In many parts of New England
But this invasion of the grasshopper is not to be COM
pared with those Of former times Dr. Dwight, in his
travels informs us that in sections of the country
they have appeared in such numbers as to fiji the air in
clouds and wherever they aght trace Of s
left In parts Of New England they have been known
to deyour not only yegeaon but even the fences and
clothing to appease their Unsuitable hunger
But the grylus mgraoriu the migratory prassbonner
Tor, commonly called, locust is the most Formidable
Of all animals capable Of adding the calamties Of
mankind by destroying the vegetable products Of the
EARTH these ocuss the most terrible These are the
locusts mentioned in Scripture. In Syria Egypt and al
most all South Of ASIA these insects appear in legions
carrying desoaton and barrenness into the fer
tile districts and darkenng the very dir by their num-
bers Their visits the precursors Of famine and
of pesence for having consumed the fruits the earth
and starved the inhabitants the purified bodies Of the
myriad Of locusts give rise to the plague and
other forms Of pestilence.
OF their nnumerable multitude no adequate concep-
ton be formed Barrow in his travels states that
the whole surface Of the ground in Southern Africa
has been sometimes literally covered with them for an
of two thousand square miles The channels deep
rivers have been choked with their carcases These To-
Gusts are still used for food in parts Of the world
| and said to taste like crawfsh.
The cicada seendecn seventeen year locust some-
times soplentiful in the United States, is different va
riety They do injury to vegetation though it is COM
monty otherwise supposed except the damage done by
the female in depostng her eggs.
we should descend from these great insect scourges
to speak of the minor pests Of sand es mosquitoes red
ants wasps hornets and the like it would be found that
the insect would have much do with determining the
sum Of human comfort or misery any agency.
And yet many insects Of great commercial value.
The bee the coral worm the insect that punctures the
lac tree all furnish commodities Of high price in market
The cochnea insect when prepared in the various forms
of dyes lakes and carmne amounts millions of dollars
annually.
We wish that some enterprising could find out q
plan to extract something valuable from the mosquito
tribe The material is in many parts Of the country
almost without limit They must be good for something
for nothing made in yain,' but it would puzzle
Jesuit to tell what Who will find the essential ele-
ment of mosquitohood, and turn it to account?