Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-20
WICKED WAYS OF LOCUsTs.
They Are Called Grasshoppers. but The
Get There just the Same.

GO RASSHOPPERS" ARE THE FOES
" most dreaded by farmers over a
large part of the great west. as a STAR re-
porter learns from the Agricultural De-
partment. Droughts they may combat by
irrigation; from cyclones they may seek refuge
in excavations made for the purpose; but be-
fore the march OF the devastating swarms they
are well nigh helpless. The plague arrives,
aud 10 as il by magic, the crops are swept
from the face Of the earth, all vegetation dis
appears and starvation stares them in the face.
Nothing short of fire will check the armies
on their march. Water, unless in wide rivers,
is no bar to their passage. In 1875 the Big and
Little Blue rivers tributaries Of the Missouri,
wore crossed at numerous places by vast bodies
OF grasshoppers, which would proceed to the
waters edge and begin jumping in, one upon
another. until they pontooned the stream, SO
as to effect a crossing. Two Of these mighty
hosts also met. one moving east and the other
west, on the river bluff in the same locality,
ana, both turning their course together down.
ward from a perpendicular cliff thirty feet
nigh. they passed over it in a sheet six or seven
inches thick, causing q roaring noise like that
OF Cataract of water. 1t is related on excel
lent authority that they have been seen to swim
over the Dniester river in Europe for a stretch
half foot thick.
How TO FIGHT THE aRAssHoPPER
For the purpose of instructing the farmer -
to methods by which he may fight this inter-
esting pest the Department of Agriculture 10
now issuing an elaborate report on the grass
hopper, which is scientifically known as the
locust. In the first place, the pamphlet
gives detailed information regarding the man
ner In which the insect is propagated. The
female, when about to lay her eggs, makes a
hole in the ground with the horny extremity Of
her abdomen, the process being sort of drill
ing. In this way she is able within q
few moments to dig deep enough
to bury nearly the whole of her
hinder part in the earth. This accomplished
she permits to exude from the tip Of her body
a quantity of mucous matter, which fills up the
bottom of The hole. In the secretion thus pre-
pared she lays one egg. Then she deposits
some more mucous and another egg, continu-
ing in this fashion until she has completed her.
lay" which consists of about twenty eggs the
mucous matter binding them all in a mass.
Enough Of the same material Is put in finally to
I'LL up the neck of the burrow, which is thus
rendered more or less impervious to water.
HOW THE EGGS ARE LAID.
The eggs of the locust are not thrust indis-
criminately in the hole made for their recep-
ton. On the contrary, the female takes great
pains in arranging them so as to economic
space and also to facilitate the escape of the
young when they come to be Matched. They
are placed side by side in four rows each row
usually containing seven. Each egg has a very
tough covering, SO that very strong pressure
between ones thumb and finger is re-
CURED to break it, and it might seem
quite puzzling how the embryo, which
nils 1t so compacty that there is scarcely room
for motion. succeeds in making its escape from
such prison. The brittle shell of the birds
egg is easily cracked by the beak of its tenant;
the Matching caterpillar curled within it's little
tenement. has space enough to move its Jaws
and eat It's way out; the egg coverings of many
insects are so delicate that the mere swelling of
The occupant affords means of release; those of
others are so constructed that door flies open
or I'D lifts by spring whenever pressure is
brought to bear; In some the little creature is
furnished with special apparatus called
the egg-burster, the use of which il to cut
or rupture the she'll But the young locust has
no such contrivances and 80 nature provides
that warmth and moisture shall decompose the
material OF its inclosing walls thus enabling
the embryo to secure its freedom by the aid Of
It's muscular efforts and the swelling of it's body
lhe whole process may, in fact, be likened to
the termination of a hard-coyered seed. All
the eggs In one egg mass burst very nearly at
the same time. the lowermost individuals await
Ing the escape OF those above which first push
their way out at the neck of the burrow.
THEY TRAVEL IN ARMIES.
Once on the surface of the ground the newborn
insect rests for few minutes. Its limbs are
still limp and it is yet enveloped in a very DELI
cate film, which is presently split along the
back, worked off behind and finally kicked
from the hind feet i'll little white crumpIsd
pellet. Though pale and colorless when first
freed from this inclosing pellicle, the fuil-born
locust is at once capable Of considerable actiy-
lty, and in the course of an hour it a.
sumes Its natural coloring. So long
as there is plenty Of food in
the neighborhood where they first see the
lSht che young insects remain almost station
airy. But as soon as the edible supply is sx-
hausted they begin to migrate, frequently in
body mile Wide, devouring as they advance
all the grass, grain and garden truck in their
path. They travel in armies, to no particular
point OF the compass but merely in search of
food, the same body of them one day often
pursuing different route from that followed
the day previous. A person going along
a road may often see one army march-
ing in one direction on the right side.
while another marches in the opposite
direction on the left side. Sometimes two
armies going in different directions will cross
one another, the individuals of each keeping to
their own course and presenting a singular
spectacle as they hop past one another. 1t il
not, however, until they acquire wings that
their rate OF progress becomes very rapid
That stage OF their existence arrived at the
be necessary for obtaining food supply In
vaalng clouds of locusts sometimes pass over
the extensive plains and thinly-settled regions
OF tine northwest, where there is little induce
ment for them to halt at the rate OF 200 and
even300 miles a day, when the winds are favor
able TO their progress.
Extended flight they do not attempt until
four or i've days after they get their wings
SOME PREVENTIVE METHODS.
Although very little can be done to check
the ravages OF swarm Of ''grasshoppers'
when once it has swooped down upon fertile
district, farmers find it well worth their while
to practice preventive methods for the destruc-
ton OF the insects which have been sown. as it
were, In the soil in one season for the produc-
ton of crop the next. Narrowing or blowing
the ground during the early winter is found
effective to some extent in DESTROYING the
eggs. One rapid way of collecting the latter is
to slice of about an inch of the surface soil
with spades, permit 1t to dry, and put it through
sleeves, SO as to separate the egg masses from
the dirt. The eggs thus collected are DESTROYED
by burying them In deep pits. In Europe the
young ones newly Matched from the ground are
mashed with FIAT implements or caught with
hand nets. But such processes would be too
slow and laborious for usefulness on large
prairie farms and against the great numbers to
be dealt with. In wheat-growing regions burn
ing machines have been employed with consid-
cradle success open CRATES on runners filed with
pitch-pine wood being drawn over the ground
by horses. In this way two men and a
team, can burn over ten or twelve acres a day.
Another method is to attach rags or tow to
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