The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-08-20
The Locust In Minnesota.

The visitation OF locuStS IN Minnesota
has proved o serious calamity. The
total damage, thus far done, consists in
a loss of about one.twelfth the usual
crop, or about the same as if the average
yield throughout the State were dimin-
jshed one and half bushels below the
average per acre. The plague extends
over one-tenth of the cultivated area of
the State, and involves about one.thir-
teenth of the population.
The insects, we notice, are universally
styled "grasshoppers, which is incor.
rect, although the mistake, owing to the
confusion of names, is natural one.
The principal points OF difference be-
tween the locust and the grasshopper
consist in that the latter is usually of a
green color and is more active by night
than by day. Grasshoppers, moreover,
do not associate together nor migrate
in large numbers, while their fight is
short and unsteady as compared to that
of the locusts, beside being noiseless.
The locusts which have appeared in
Minnesota are, when full grown, of
about an inch and q quarter in length,
and of dusky grayish color, the heads
being reddish and the under wings,
when spread, OF coppery hue. The
eggs are gray, ovate, and about as large
as wheat corn, and are deposited in
clusters in the ground and under the
grass and stubble. When Matched, the
insects feed on the nearest vegetation,
and then rise in vast clouds, seeking
other pastures.
A Minnesota settler, who has suffered
severely from their ravages, in writing
a. al 4
throng of the locusts as resembling
huge snow cloud, often completely OBJ
literating the sun. The lower insects
fly at height of about forty feet from
the ground, and the others fill the air
above as far as the eye can reach. When
they settle on a field of grain, every
stalk is covered, so that the entire field
seems to have suddenly turned brown.
They do not eat the grain:but bite into
the tender stock and juicy kernel, and
suck out the vital sap, leaving every
particle of vegetation dead, so that
within day or two the entire crop be-
comes dry and withered. Their appe-
tite seems especially directed toward
garden stuff and grain, but frequently
the voracity is such that every living
green thing is devoured before they
rise. Minnesota farmers assert that
there is no remedy. Fall fires do no
good and water and frost are without
effect. Flowing up thu ground where
the eggs are deposited or burning over
the grass where they are laid during
the spring, it is believed, are the best
known preventives. The worst enemy
of the locust, however, seems to be o
little red parasite, which gets under its
wings and gnaws into the very vitals of
the insect. Dead locusts are found
covered with these worms.
Various portions of Europe and the
north coast of Africa have suffered
greatly from the plague both recently
and in the past. In France, during
Nay and June, when the insects first
appear in the fields, all the women and
children turn out to hunt them. -Four
persons grasp the corners of sheet,
two in advance holding their ends close
to the ground and the couple in rear
elevating their corners, SO that the
sheet is held at an angle Of 45o. In
this position, the cloth is carried over a
field several times, the insects being
forced to rise, when they fail upon the
sheet and thence are tumbled into bags.
| OOluc luSd "a VIC lllm0uSc uuulUtIb VI
the locusts which may thus be de-
stroyed, may be gained from the fact
that single peasant, with entomolo-
gist's small net, has been known to
capture 100 pounds of insects in day,
equal to about 1000 eggs destroyed.
The Arabs drive off locusts by making
great bon6res, producing large quan.
titles of smoke. In Algiers, the most
effective plan is said to be spreading
large nets over the insects early in the
morning after they have become gorged
and inert through feeding, and then
collecting them in bags and bury them
in lime. Leaving the dead bodies on
the ground is apt to breed infection.
Narrowing over the fields, where The
females lay the eggs, seems, however.
to be widely followed plan of destruc.
tion, as, if the eggs be scattered, the
sun soon dries them up. Birds and
toads are excellent auxiliaries in dis
posing of the eggs after field has thus
been gone over.