Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-09-03
LARGEST KNOWN SPECIES OF GRAssHOPPERS.
(The picture shows him one-half life sizel

the requisite germs. These cultures"
! have been distributed during the pres
ent year in Colorado, experimentally,
while the disease from South Africa is
being tried in Texas.
| Injecting the Grasshoppcrs.
On receiving q bottle of the fungus,
| the farmer is directed, by an accom-
panying printed slip to put a number
of live grasshoppers in a wooden box,
| together with portion of the germ ma
terial. They will quickly become in
fected, when he may liberate all but
half dozen or so.
These, when dead, will serve to COM
| municate the disease to other living
grasshoppers, placed in the box for that
purpose. AS fast as they are injected
the 'hoppers" are to he set free in the
fields to distribute the plague among
their fellows.
The grasshopper is one of the most
serious problems encountered by the
farmer in the West. Owing to the set
tlement of great areas which formerly
were it's permanent breeding grounds,
producing regular and enormous crops
of the voracious pests every year, the
insect no longer appears in those
mighty swarms that used to arrive like
devastating armies and devour every
thing green. But even nowadays not a
season passes that the "hoppers' do not
appear in alarming numbers in some
parts Of the country, destroying the
crops and bringing great loss or even
ruin to the helpless agriculturist
The ''hoppers" sow their eggs, plant
ing on one season those which are to be
Matched the next. The female drills a
hole in the ground with the horny tip
of her abdomen, and in this she lays
about 20 eggs, which are bound to-
'gether in a mass with mucus excreted
by the mother insect The burrow is
filled up with mucus, which makes it
watertight.
Fighting the Pest.
Now the farmers best chance is to
destroy the unmatched eggs, and this he
tries to do in various ways the most
effective perhaps being to slice off an
inch of the top soil, dry it and pass it
through sleeves to separate the egg
masses, which are buried in deep pits.
In the wheat growing regions burning
machines, which are open gates on run
ners, filled with lighted pitch pine, are
drawn by horses across the fields. An
other method consists in digging pits,
into which the swarms are driven, with
the help of widespread wings of canvas
stretched on sticks.
The eggs are envelOped in tough lit
tie capsules, not easily broken by pres
sure between thumb and finger. but
when ready to hatch the coat of the
ovum is dissolved and releases the in
sect. When new born the young grass
hopper is covered with a sort Of veil,
which presently splits along the back
and is kicked off behind. So long as
there is plenty of food in the neighbour
hood he does not move about much. bur
when the available provender is ex-
hausted he starts out to look for an
other spot.
1t is in this way that the great migra-
IIOhS are oeSuH' d44 dLHiJ VI SldSSHOp-
pers On the march being often as much
as a mile wide. They cover the ground
densely, deyouring as they go all grass,
grain and garden truck. Sometimes
two such armies cross each other, but
each keeps right along in it's own
course.
Some grasshoppers are among the
most beautiful insects in the world,