The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TION
BUREA U
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
WAshinston. .. C
THE LOCUsTs ARE COMING.
wAshinston. D. C

Washington. ID. C., March S.-The
department of agriculture sounds the
warning-an avalanche of tocusts may
be expected during the last week in
May. The seventeen-year locusts and
the thirteen-year Iocusts are all turn
ing over in their shells for last nap
under ground preparatory to COM
bined activity this summer.
The seyenteen-year locusts. or
Brood Ten as they are scientifically
known, are by far the larger family
and the more widely scattered For
seventeen years these locusts. millions
of them, have slept peacefully in the
ground exactly where they buried
themselves. But by the last of May,
1919, they will have completed their
seventeen year growth. They Will
then burst their shells and come out
to try their voices in their well known
heat song.
The seventeen-y year locust is not
locust at all: it is a homopterous
hemipterous insect, or more popularity
cicada. Use of the name cicada
seems to be confined chiefly to
scientists and agriculturists and at
that one testing employe of the depart
ment of agriculture cheerfully and
unscientifically calls it a periodical
chickadee" To the layman. however.
the cicadas will always be locusts: or
sometimes those internal locusts."
The cicada bears on his wings a well
defined letter w. This has been seized
upon as a clue by those Who attach
deeper meaning to the seventeen year
sleep of the locust than to the shorter
nap of the caterpillar. These sages at
one time decided that the w stood for
war, and that the appearance OF the
swarm of iocusts brought woe ana
disaster, even as in the Gays OF
Pharaoh and the plague of the locusts
Possibly the prophets will still main
tain that the seVenteen-year locust is
a forerunner of war. The more cheer-
full seers will probably associate the w
on the 1919 locust with wealth as
portent of national prosperity.
Whatever the locusts' hidden mean
ing, the obvious conclusion when a
swarm of them begin chirping in your
backy ard is that they mean business.
The fully developed locust craWls out
of his bed below the ground and
climbs up on the trunk of some tree
where he shakes off his worn shell.
This is the time when he is most easily
yanuuished He is still weak and
rather sleepy. If you have trees in
your backyard, or if you have an or
chard, you can avert the attacks or
the locusts, who will surely find them,
by scraping the young insects off the
trunks.
When the locusts have just emerged
they can climb only a short way up a
tree and so are comparatively easy to
collect When gathered into bag or
a basket they should be Immediately
destroyed. If the young locusts are
left undisturbed, they soon gain
strength and in a months time will
have practically completed their dam
age.
: BY that time their eggs will be de-
posted in the trunks and branches OF
trees to the lasting injury of the bark
Any kind of tree will be used by the
| 1oeusts, tho oak and hickory and fruit
| trees and vines are preferred II there
| is choice. Large trees, the depart
| ment of agriculture says, are not often
seriously damaged by locust holes, but
| if you have a young orchard, be care
| full! The insignificant locust can in
| jure a promising orchard so that II
will never bear fruit.
Besides collecting young locusts in
sectides can be employed as a means
| of destruction. These, too, are only
| effective when the insect is young and
| gullible. The department of agricul-
| ture recommends one of the following
| which should be obtainable at any
| drug store: pyrethrum powder. kero-
| sene emulsions, a per cent solution
| of carbolic acid, or a 1 5 per cent solu-
| ton of acetid acid, sprayed directly on
| the insects.
The cicada, the scientists say, has
| no aversion to ill smelling substances
which are often sold as sure remedies
The use of such destroyers may drive
the user out of range of their power
| but the cicada stays on.
| Another delusion is that the locusts
| dislike of white surfaces will prevent
| their resting on a whitewashed tree
| trunk. Observation proves that the
: cicada is rather averse to the con-
| spicuous whiteness of whitewash
However, if other trees are uncom-
! forta bly, full, or if no other place is
! onnvnniant "a 1nntlSt will and oft or
! does roost on a tree covered with g
thick layer of whitewash,
Wait until the locust wave is over
/ to plan young orchards and to prune
| trees. BY leaving trees unpruned, the
| damage of the locust activities is
/ spread over a greater surface. These
are the final warnings of the depart
ment of agriculture to people who live
in districts where the 1ocusts will ap.
pear.
So important is the arrival of the
locust tribe that the scientists of tbs
department of agriculture have made
a special study of its habits and pas
appearances. They know exactly
where and when the cicada will come
out. This year they announce that the
| locusts will be in evidence in two
batches-the seventeen year locust:
| who will cover the whole or parts O.
twenty states, and the thirteen year 10.
Gusts, who will be confined to. the
southeast.
The exact range of the seventeen
year brand is predicted as follows
Beginning at the eastern extremity O.
Long Island. it sweeps west and soutl
to the Mississippi river at Cairo. Ill.
and extends as far north as centra
Wisconsin and as far south as middle
Georgia. with some isolated colonie
as far northeast as upper Vermont
and one as far west as the boundar,
line between Iowa and Nebraska
Twenty states are included There ar