The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-10-04
BUGS
Wichita Deluged Last Night
With Winged Pests.
CAME FROM COLORADO
Driven Across the Country by
Forest Fires.

Yesterday evening about o'clock a
cloud Of bugs and insects came floating
IN upon Wichita from the northwest.
Part OF them, to the number of several
hundred million. stopped. but the most of
them went on and disappeared in the
southeast. There were butterflies, bees,
hornets. beetles, yellow-ackets, worm
Mes, candle gnats by the basketfui. and
not few grasshoppers with an extrava-
CANT representation of every specie Of
Iepioopterous pest in the western hemis-
phere 1t IS thought that the insects
came here from Colorado, having been
driven out by the heavy fires that have
been running in western and northwest
ern Colorado beyond the divide.
They were not in punches. They came
after the fashion Of a snow storm. filling
the atmosphere from the ground UP as
far as they could be seen. Up at a dis
lance Of three or four hundred feet they
were thick enough TO have the appearance
OF a cloud, the greater part Of which
passed on over the city. There was quite
sprinkling of the pests struck in the
city Sunday evening, but nothing COM
pared to what came last night This Wis
itation of itinerant insects in some way
Brought on or stirred up an unheard of
activity among the bugs that fly about
the electric lights here in the summer.
In many places people who attempted
to put in an extra hour or two Of work
after night, had to turn off their lights
and leave. At the ansas News Stand
the globe Of the arc light in front mad
half a gallon of the insects piled up in
st. while below and around it there was
thick whirlwind of the insects 1t was
the same at the Norris stand and around
the street lights.
When the procession struck town at 6
o'clock 1t was accompanied by a whir-
ring noise or a low, dull hum above the
buildings, probably caused by the vibra-
ton Of their wings. Only a very few of
the hornets. bees or butterflies stopped
here, though they struck the buildings
and fell about in uncomfortable profu-
sion. No local authority on bugs could
be found last night, though several peO-
pie were questioned on the matter. It
was the general opinion Of old timers
that none of the insects which fell here
would propagate to any appreciate ex-
tent and that not enough grasshoppers
landed to IL the wheat any injury. No
body thought that there would be any
more grasshoppers in Kansas next year
than now.
There were. in additionsto those already
named, few dragon flies and the white
winged, pentagonal shaped bug that
crowds around in the prairie grass and
which nobody knows the name Of the old
fashioned stink bug" and the feather
winged moth.
The question was raised a number of
times ifthese bugs came from the fire
district in Colorado, why didn't they go
west or north or some other way than
over the divide and down into Kansas2
There have been storms in the north and
west the last few days and it is proba-
BILE that the fires were driven by north
west winds. This would drive all the
incects in the territory this side of where
the fire started in this direction, and
after starting they were carried along by
the storm and kept flying. 1t was thought
by people who discussed the incident last
night. that what few bees dropped would
die. That most of the insects in the
storm were those indigenous TO a wooded
country and that they would fly along
till they reached another such a country
or until they dropped and were killed
None of the insects noticed here, except
the grasshoppers, are dangerous to crops