Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-02-06
17-Year Locusts This Year.

Inc year 1919 Is nhCly W oS ohS
Ie greatesr locust years" on record
But entomologists Of the Unitet
States Department OF Agriculture SCI
nothing alarming in the prospect.
The periodical cicada, the real nam'
OF the insect commonly called 10
Gust" will appear this year in part
Of the following States: Alabama
District OF Columbia, Delaware, Ceor
gia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ken
lucky, Maryland, Massachusetts,, Mi
chigan, New Jersey, New York, Nortf
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Soutf
Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Vir
ginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The injury done by the periodica
cicada consists almost wholly in chis
cling grooves in the branches Of tree:
for depositing eggs. This injury al
ways appears to be greater than i
actually is. Probably alarm is usual
ly out Of proportion to general dam
age.
Young fruit trees are sometim
killed by the cicada. The precau.
tionary measures are: Defer putting
out young fruit trees till next year
postpone budding operations; do no
pruning this winter or spring.
When the insects begin coming out
hand pick them from young fruit
trees or spray them with pyrechrum
powder, kerosene emulsions or So
luton of carbolic acid or acetlc acid
The most interesting insect in the
world, the periodical cicada, Is goInl
to be seen, perhaps in very large
numbers, during the coming spring
and early summer over large regions
Of the United States where this brood
has not appeared before for seventeen
years and over other regions where
another brood appeared thirteen years
ago, says a Washington dispatch. This
is the insect commonly referred TO as
the "17-year locust" name that is
incorrect in at least two particulars.
1t is not a locust at all, that name be-
ing properly applied only to members
of the grasshoppers family, and while
it has a l7-year period, it also has a
13-year period. 1t has been so Tong
miscalled by the name of locust, how
ever, that there is no hope of divest-
ing 1t OF that incorrect appellatlon,
and in the regions where there is the
longer period Of recurrence, 1t will
continue to be known as the -"l7-year
locust" and in the areas Of the short
er recurrence period, as the "l3-year-
locust" The scientifically accepted
name of periodical cicada, therefore.
is the only one that exactly fits.
The statement that this Is the mos,
interesting insect in the world viii
hardly be questioned anywhere, ane
it is the most interesting because it /:
the most anomalous, or, possibly, be.
cause it has always appeared to be sc
mysterious. The fact that it appears
in countless numbers one year, ther
is not seen again for half the average
lifetime OF human beings, and theI
suddenly appears again in countless
numbers, has kept the popular mind
mystified and has woven many super.
stitions about the cicada. When it il:
known that the insect spends the thir-
teen or seventeen years in slow devel
opment beneath the ground and
emerges at almost exactly the sans
spot where it entered the ground thir-
teen or seventeen years before-then
the mystery disappears, but the in.
terest, il anything, is intensified. One
OF the queerest things in nature Is
that in spite OF such extremely slow
growth in their subterranean habitat
all the millions OF individuals attain
maturity and burst from the ground
at almost the same moment.
Every "locust year" is, in some sort
a year Of fear and dread. 1t appears
to have been so with the savages anc
has remained so with their Civilized
successors, Notwithstanding the fact
that the cicada has been under inves.
tigation for we'll over 200 years, and
the appearance Of the swarms are
foretold by 'entomologists as accurate:
ly as eclipses Of the moon are foretold
by astronomers. People have rancied
that they could detect in the cry oil
the cicada a resemblance to the mon
arch, Pharoah, that prosecuted the
lsraelites, and that occult belief OF
fear added to the somewhat dolorous
sound has served to make the cry o.
the cicada generally an unwelcoms
one. Very long ago some superstition
attached to the dark bars OF the Hlmy
wings. These bars are always IN tht
shape OF tine letter W, but few people
remember that through a period o.
thirteen or seventeen years, and srea
significance is attached to it at eacf
recurrence. Some prophet has ariser
always to announce that the W on tn.
locust's wings means "war." Since
this outbreak will come just At tht
conclusion OF the greatest war, anc
when even the imagination Of the ru
raj prophet could hardly conJure vi
the likelihood of another one, some
new explanation will apparently have
to be found this time. But no doub
the cicada will, as usual, be greetec
as a harbinger OF disaster, and as US
La - HAoths