The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-06-28
GRASS HOPPERS
LATEST MENACE
REPORTS COME TO A. C. FROM
WESTERN PART OF sTATE-NoT
DESTRUCTIVE ROCKY NOUN
TAIN LocUsT-HoW TO HANDLE
THE PESTS DESCRIBED.

"a considerable number of reports
are coming into the Agricultural COL
lege regarding the unusually large
number of grasshoppers to be found
throughout the grain fields and
meadows in the eastern part of the
state" said Prof. C. 3. Waldron- to-
day. 80 far as we. have examined,
these grasshoppers consist principally
of three species, the lesser migratory
locust, the two striped locust and the
red-legged locust. So far we have
found no specimens of the Rocky
Mountain migratory locust. In many
places these insects have appeared in
such numbers as to do considerable
damage to the grain and hay crops,
and inquiries have come in as to the
best means Of checking them at this
time.
"It was reported to me today that
one eight-acre field in Sargent county
had been swept clean by. the pests.
1T is rather late in the season to
begin an active campaign for the de-
struction of grasshoppers. A number
of farmers have commenced using hop
perdosers, but these, especially at this
time of the year, are only a makeshift.
When the young grasshoppers are just
Matching out and are very numerous
along one side of field, as is apt to
be the case when grain is grown along
side of a stubble field, the hopperdoser
can be used to very good advantage.
Later on when many Of the insects
have developed wings and have scat
tered uniformly over the fields, IL is not
a very effective means of destruction.
The only practical and sure remedy is
of course to plow under the grasshop-
per eggs during the fall or early in the
spring. Wherever grasshoppers are
found in large numbers during the
months of July and August it may be
their eggs and the ground which they
occupy should be plowed.
The common source of injection,
especially with the two-striped locust,
is along railroad entertainments and
highways where they are depositing
their eggs. The highway should be
run over with a grader, or disk, or
both, before the ground freezes UP in
the fall. This work should be done
clear out as far as the grass grows
along the edges of the road. Grass
hoppers can be kept from attacking
garden plants, particularly cabbage.
by spraying kerosene emulsion. as the
kerosene is distasteful to them. This
must be applied at intervals of week
or. so. 1t is also possible to poison
grasshoppers in gardens by making a
mixture, composed of one gallon of
bran, one gallon of cheap molasses and
enough paris green to give it a green
color and enough water to make 1t
fairly moist. This is distributed along
the rows in the garden.
'Tt was noticed this spring that the
red mite which in it's adult stage feeds
upon the eggs of the grasshopper, and
in it's larval stage attaches itself to
the grasshopper as a parasite, was
very numerous. This mite will OF
course very greatly reduce the num-
Der of grasshoppers, but it must not
be depended upon to destroy it : en-
tirely
About the only thing that can be
done from this time on is to make
careful note of where the grasshop-
pers are found in numbers. blowing all
of the region thus infected some time
before the first of next May"