Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-18
LOCIJSTS AREDUE
TO VISIT SOON
State Officials Say That They
Will Come Along Within
the Next Month or SO

All doubt about the seventeen year
old locust being due here next month
has been swept away by State Of
ficials who have been making studies
of charts and receiving reports from
men observing the pesky fiers.
Some loCusts have been plowed up
and the State officials are sounding
warnings that the locusts are to be
expected.
According to Prof. J. q. Sanders
State economic zoologist, the his
toric pests will be very numerous IN
part of Pennsylvania and orchards
may suffer The counties wherein .
they will appear are Somerset, Bed
ford, Blair. Centre. Clinton, lEcoh-
ing, Columbia, Luzerne, l.acka-
wanna, Monroe. Northampton. Le-
high. Bucks. Montgomery, Phila-
delphia. Delaware, Lancaster, York, ,
Adams, Franklin, Fulton. hunting
don. Miffiin Juniata, Perry. Dauphin,
Cumber rland, Lebanon, Union, SnNu-
er, Schuylkill northumberland, Mon
tour, Carbon, Berks and chester.
They will also appear in parts OF
New Jersey, Delaware and Mary
land and in Western Ohio and In
diana as we'll as some western states.
The appearance of the locusts in
these areas is all down in black and
white as the result of historical re
search. The brood which will turn
out of the ground soon * known as
the N brood" Some people call
it the Tenth Legion" These locusts
appeared last in these counties in
1902 and were particularly destruc-
tive. They sawed into the bark, laid
their eggs and died. Their descend
ants will emerge from the ground
soon and repeat the process. IheX
did so in 1885 and 1858 as is well
attcsted in official records for these
Sanders, history shows that this
brood has been traced at seventeen
year old intervals since lIl9.
In spite of this long record, the
Tenth Legion" has a rival for an
tiquity as the XIV group. which Will
appear in 1928. has been traced back
to 1888 in America. II VIII also al ,
feet parts of Central Pennsylvania. /
These loCuStS are an American in |
sect. They are different from the /!
locusts of the Bible and are smaller /
and of more reddish color than /
the big green spotted locusts that |
sings for hot weather in the dog T.
days, the loCuSts that wear the Wv !
on their wings and have proved false /
prophets more often than Neraclous. 7.
They have afflicted coloniSts and far
is very little that can be done to
kill them off, although Prof. Sanders
says that the disappearance of for 3
ests has reduced the damage they
have been doing. However, with
the increase OF orchard enterprises
in PENNSYLVANIA, there is grave dam
ger of momentary loss. There is
big wasp that kills the locusts but
it is not numerous and in appear .
ance is worse than the locust and ,
with temper that is terrifying.
P. T. Barnes, assistant to Prof. !
Sanders. has been engaged in field !
work and made studies of locusts
in southwestern Pennsylvania, es-
pecially in Green county and in West
Virginia. while Prof Sanders work .
ed out their histories and character
istics while in the United States SER
vice at Washington. Mr.. Barnes
saw them at their worst in south
western Pennsylvania in 1914 and
says that this years brood will prob
ably be destructive. In 1915 New
Jersey was hard hit while in 1916
some western counties of Pennsyl-
vania and New York suffered. In
1917 western counties had too many /,
for comfort.