Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-15
TONS OE IOCuS1S.
The Fight Against the Insect Armies
AlDeria.


Within the last two or three wears AL
geria has been sorely plagued with To-
Gusts, and the French government has
been compelled to take active measures
against the pest. A French naturalist,
NJ. dHerculais, was sent to Algeria to
study the question. 1t was soon re-
ported that he had been overcome by
heat or vertigo while out on the desert
investigating the habits of the locusts,
and that they had come upon him in a
swarm and devoured his body, and even
his clothing. The story proved to be
false, but was not denied until flatter-
ing obituaries of NJ. d'IIerculasis had
appeared in many quarters. The work
OF the first two years against the locusts
was ineffective because of the general
ignorance of the life history of the in
sect.
In 1891 the question was better under
stood, and adequate means were adopt
ed to reduce the numbers of the insects
If they could not be exterminated. The
country was divided into sections and
subsections, each in charge of a civil or
military officer, and power was given
these chiefs to impress native labor
when needed.
In February the campaign was
opened by an energetic collection of the
eggs of the locusts. The eggs are laid
in the ground, about two inches below
the surface, and are easily found by
means of the holes made by the female
in laying them. In the provinces or
"Kaidats" of Susa, Djemel and Mehedia
over sixty thousand kilograms-about
one hundred and twenty-five thousand
pounds-of eggs were thus collected,
and other provinces harvested as many.
They were destroyed by burning.
In spite of this enormous destruction
of eggs, hordes of locusts appeared at
the usual Matching season, and the next
move against them began. This was
the destruction of the great marching
columns into which the young locusts
form themselves six or seven days after
Matching, Their speed at first is about
sixty yards an hour, and the crawling
stage lasts from forty-f1ve to fifty days
When first Matched they are somewhat
sluggish, and many were crushed while
thus inactive.
The destruction of a marching column
was effected by the use of the screen
system, long known and used in
Cyprus for the same purpose. A screen
of cloth is erected across the line of
march, with openings about FIVE yards
wide at regular intervals.
These openings are spanned by bitches
into which the locusts fall as they pass
through the openings in this screen,
while projecting strips of zine prevent
them from ascending the sides Of the
ditch and escaping. The locusts caught
in these traps are either burned or
killed with asphyxiating liquids, such
as diluted oil of creosote or carbolic acid.
In the Zaghouan and Fahs districts
twenty-five miles of screens were
erected and it is estimated that six
hundred cubic metres of locusts were
destroyed in the traps. 1t was noticed
that the migrating swarms of young
locusts were usually differed by older
ones, and this is thought to account
for the unerring accuracy with which a
column would make for a suitable vine
yard or other feeding ground. It was
found necessary, in erecting the screens,
to make no great noise or bustle, or the
approaching army would take the alarm
and change its direction.
Operations on such scale are, of
course, possible only where labor is
cheap. In this instance the natives en-
ploycd wnen put to work on the farms
of their own district, were supplied By
the Kaid, or governor, with rations of
bread and oil, but when summoned to
meet o sudden emergency at a distance,
they received thirty-five cents a day,
besides rations of coffee and mutton.
The results obtained were considered
satisfactory, but little damage having
been done to vineyards or crops. 1t is
certain, however, that without the in
telligent supervision of the French army
officers, success would not have been
attained, and they in turn were DEEPEN
dent upon the previous study of the in
sect's habits by entomologists for the
data upon which to plan an intelligent
campaign, Youths Companion.