Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-02-07
BEvvARE THE LOCUST
WHEN CONSIDERING
TREE PLANTING NOW

The slogan Go. Slow This Year In
putting out new plants has been
sounded BY the chronological Depart
rnent III Agriculture 70 the orchardisis
The too early putting our 81 plants
this year. ii is said. viii cause them
10 receive injuries al the hands Of
locusts. for this is 1T-year- locust
year Id Maryland and adjoining stases
while old trees comparatively escape
Odicial bulletins state that brood
30. 10. one Of the largest On record.
viii appear. and that 10 planting cr
pruning should be done until after
hey are gone. The insects, Il is
stated. will appear in great swarns
/ Ii is feared many of the young or
chards in this territory will be seri-
lously damaged bs the insects and
just how to combat the pest IS q prob
lem the orchard owners are wrestling
wilh. for the greater number of the
trees here have never before been at
tackled BY the 17-year Iocusts
The brood is common this year in
/ Maryland, all over West Virginia.
most Of Ohio and with sprinkling In
THE counties Of Pennsylvania and yir-
glnia. This is the northern variety of
the IT-year locust There Is another
variety. known al the isyear locust,
but this Is confined to the extreme
south, and never extends beyond the
Potomac or farther than the southern
part 81 Illinois.
The records Of the various broods
have been kept in some instances for
more than 100 years. 80 that the en-
Itonologists know where ID look for
their appearance each year In the
grounds of the department of agricul-
Etnre more than a decade ago some OF
4 the insects were collected and allowed
TO deposit their eggs in the shade
trees Al record was made OF the time
when these eggs were planted and
they Matched ont exactly / I years aft
erWard. just as the name would indie
cate.
The locusts really do very little
damage, and do not injure large trees
#at all They may do damage 70
young nurseries or young orchards
where q great many eggs have been
deposited in the tender trees, but even
with the young nurseries the bulk Of
the damage can be headed on BY 4
vigorous pruning back after the eggs
have been deposited
The famous Brood % appeared In
the summer Of 1902 Ii extended over
a territory from Long Island west 70
Wisconsin and south TO Georgia
Ii is interesting 10 note that Brood
% has generation of youngsters de-
veloping right under our feet
The life story Of generation be-
gins when the females flock to the
treetops ana lay their egg masses II
the tWigs Iii q few weeks the eggs
hatch and the fat, antlike Larvae wrig.
gle out and fall to the ground. I'm.
inediately they burrow below the sur.
face and establish themselves each
alone in little chamber near the roo
Of some plant
In the years Of active life that FOL,
low. the insects feed upon humus
possibly also on sap from rootlets
The front legs are developed into tools
like cutting jaws for burrowing ane
getting food
The insect moults It's skin five times
! during its life underground Thess
changes occur during the second
I fourth. eleventh and fifteenth years
: When the seventeenth year ii reached
ambition of new sort Ii born TIL,
creature, now a pupa, craWls to th,
surface Of the ground, sometimes cele
brating the great day BY building |
chimney Of earth and crawling out o
this special exit into the open for TIL,
final Inoult
5