The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-11-02
FIGHT THE L0CUsTs'
Austrian Method May Be of Value
in United States.
Destructive Little Pests Due to Ar
rive Again Next Spring, Ento-
moloelsts Declare-How
War May Be Waged. S.

Washington.-That the seventeen
year locust is due to appear by next
spring is the announcement recently
made by entomologists who have kept
track of the little pests visits, and
while heretofore measures against a
locust invasion have proved futile,
there is a possibility that the plan of
the ChemicalAgrarian institute of
Goerz, Austria, to reduce their num-
bers may be of benefit here, not only
in the case of the seventeen-year To-
Gust, but of the annuaf supply of
grasshoppers. Vice Consul de Mar
TIM at Trieste, in describing these
measures, says:
Under the guidance of their mas
tiers the boys of all the communes of
the province of Goerz were trained to
intercept the march and capture the
locusts in their invasion of that agri-
cultural district in 1909. Exact sta
tistics have just been published, CIV
ing interesting particulars which may
prove useful to other agrarian fields,
even in the United States.
The official report describes the
method used to combat the pest and
shows the results of each commune,
the number of litres of locusts killed
and prizes awarded to each school,
and the number of days work done
a days work consisting of three hours
by each boy. The days of work are
stated to have been 26,845, during
which eleven railway wagon loads of
locusts were captured. The total
amount in prizes awarded to the boys
was 1900 cro'--7 ($3,45D. Each boy
received 10 a day for three
hours, capturing On an average four
quarts of locusts each day. The total
expenditures were as follows: Prizes
to boys, $3,451; implements and their
repair, S696; overseers, $406; school
masters, 5000; administration work,
$5OS; total, 1864.
This work, due to proper organiza-
ton of the schoolboys, shows what
might be achieved by similar means
on a much more extensive scale to
wipe out this plague. If it is COM
puted that each locust consumes daily
food to half the volume of it's body, it
follows that locusts thus captured
would have devoured sixty railway
wagon loads of hay (six tons to a
load), besides damaging cultivation.
OF the locusts captured, 400 made a
litre. The 100000 litres gathered rep
resented, therefore, about 45,000,000
locusts, 3O,OOO,O00 of which we're fe-
males that would have laid 100000
600 eggs for new generation.
The implements consisted Of col
lectors, reservoirs and litre measures.
The collector is quadrangular frame
work of zinc wire, liz inches on each
side and of the shape of cone, 279s
inches deep, covered with linen bag.
On one side of the frame is attached
a movable wooden handle forty-seven
inches long. The two sides of the
frame that touch the ground are COW
cred with leather. These collectors,
when offered wholesale, cost cents
each. The collection or the capture
of the locusts is effected by agitating
the collector to the right and left or
by dragging 1t forward along the
ground at brisk pace. Every now
and then the collector must be sha-
ken briskly to let the locusts gath
cred on 1t fall stunned to the bottom.
The reservoir is simply an empty
petroleum tin box, in which square
opening is cut, closed by a tin door,
When the reservoir is full the locusts
are destroyed by pouring boiling wa
ter into it, The locusts die within
five to ten minutes after being scald-
ed, when the reservoir is emptied and
the dead locusts are measured with
the litre measure.
Locusts may be turned from a pest
to a valuable food for fattening cat
tie, pigs and fowls. For this purpose
the locusts, after being killed, are
spread on the ground and sprinkled
with a solution of kitchen salt and
water and dried in the sun. The boys
keep turning the locusts over to dry
on both sides.