Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-07-13
FEARS AN INVASION
OF GRAssHoPPERs
Professor Lawrence Bruuer, an En-
inent Authority, Warns Farm
ers Of the West.
HOW CROPS MAY Be SAVED
Best Method of Destroying Hoppcr>
AMI Locwsts Is by Use of the
Kerosene Pan.-Urgcs Pro.
lection of Birds.

w AAolSsSoF Lawrence bFunef OIL tine
department of entomology, of the
Nebraska State university, this sec
ton of the west is threatened with
devastation by loeusts and grasshop-
pers. That gentleman declares that
he expects serious trouble from these
insects before fall, and suggests that
the various western states which have
previously suffered from this source
take immediate steps to prevent the
threatened plague.
Professor Bruner is a national au-
thority on this subject. Two years
ago the government of Brazil en-
ployed him to rid the great wheat dis
tricts of the republic of locusts and
chinch bugs. Professor Bruner was
in that part of South America six
months. and succeeded in his task.
He inocnlated the chinch bugs and de-
stroyed them completely.
The .locusts, which were much the
same species as those of Kansas and
Nebraska, he had much more trouble
with. They We're eating the country
up, and would appear in one section
one day and be hundred miles away
in another day. They would fire.
quently pass over rich agricultural
districts to attack an entirely new
section. They ate even the bark from
the trees in their course, and the paint
from the houses. incubation de-
stroyed many of these pests, but they
would not respond as readily to this
treatment as the chinch bugs of that
region.
Rp,,,t, 20. al, 81 -
use ordinary dry fungus on number
of live bugs and turn them loose to
spread the blood poisoning among
those in the field. Again, he takes
the healthy chinch bug or locust or
grasshopper and inoculates it with
other dead bugs that have been pois-
oned by the fungus. These fly into
the fields, and the disease is very
rapidly communicated. The profess
sor says he has seen the dead hop
pcrs and bugs several inches deep
in fields where they had rotted and
died two days after the first bugs
were inoculated. The disease is ordi-
narily very fatal among the small
hoppers, which destroy vegetation in
Kansas and Nebraska.
Professor Bruner says all signs
point to visit from these destruc-
farmers can save much of their crop
by the use of the oblong kerosene
pan in which the bugs are gathered
and then burned. This was the plan
frequently adopted in Brazil by the
natives with success. A factor in the
temperance of the locusts and hop
| pers in Nebraska, says Professor
Bruner, is the death of SO many of
| the birds of the prairie which feed
on these insects. The scarcity of the
prairie chicken and the quail contrib
utcs materially to a locust plague. lie
says these birds destroy thousands of
the hoppers and assist materially in
keeping down the pests through the
| west.
Discussing the subject, Professor
Bruner said:
Within the last few months re-
| ports have reached me of damage in
different parts of Nebraska caused
by hoppers and locusts. BY means OF
i specimens obtained and examined by
me st the university, l ascertain that
| four or five different specimens of this
kind are sufficiently numerous right
| now in this state to cause alarm. They
| are the two-lined locust, the ditferen-
tal locust, the red-legged locust, the
lesser migratory locust and the Rocky
| Mountain locust. The presence of the
| Rocky mountain or migratory locust
| at different points in the state in large
! numbers seems to warrant the author
| titles in taking some action toward
| their determination. While this par
ticular species is not more destructive
| to crops than other kinds, their habit
of migrating great distances, and their
unusual activity make him Il very
| dangerous element to reckon with
They move in large bodies, and are
| quite dangerous for that reason alone
When the natural checks upon To-
| Gusts increasing seem to fail and these
| insects multiply abnormally, it is ne
| cessary to use artificial means to re
/ duce their numbers. First of all,
| wish to suggest that our native birds
be protected, since nearly all of then
are especially fond of locusts as reg
| ular diet When our prairie chickens
| and grouse were numerous. no harm
whatever was ever reported coming
from native grasshoppers,' and this
proves that these birds had much to
| do with keeping the supply down
| Quail, plover, blackbirds, sparrsws
hawks and even ducks feed largely
| upon insects. A single bird of any
of these species will destroy thousands
of locusts, hoppers or chinch bugs il
| the course of a season. Where these
birds are destroyed, these extra thou
sands of insects soon increase to the
danger point as far as vegetation is
concerned. Year after year the gal
is made wider, and the possibilities oil
harm increase. Even frogs, lizards
| and snakes that come under the bar
of man are useful in destroying these
| insects.
When we have removed about the
only natural check to the increase o1
| these insects, we must resort to arti
fetal measures. Thus far we have
been but partially successful in oul
attempts at destroying these pests by
| the use of fungus diseases. Unlike
the chinch bug fungus, the one tina,
attacks the locust is comparatively
slow in its action and appears to take