The St. Paul echo. [volume] (St. Paul ;) 1925-1927, 1926-02-20
INSECTSSTAR AS
MOVIE ARTISTS
Films of Plant Pests Rival
Screen Thrillers Made
by Humans.

thriller ne selects nasty insect IOr
villain and puts the pest through re-
hearsal. Some Of the pests are natu-
raj movie actors; others are as tenn
peramental as any Hollywood star.
The primary reason for this, Depart
ment Of Agriculture officials explain,
Is that certain insects shun light,
whereas others exult In the glare of
the studio Kleigs.
Consider the case Of the common
clothes moth. The department desired
to make picture showing the de-
structive habits of this pest, but the
insects refused to work under the
bright studio lights. Moths placed on
an article Of clothing few so rapidly
into seam Of goods that the close
ups were a failure. The camera man
then hit upon the novel idea of chloro-
forming the insects to retard their
speed, and the picture was a success.
Cotton boil weevils, on the other
hand, perform best under the intense
lights. They are regarded as star &C
ters, only close-ups seeming to satisfy
the vanity of the pest. Not content
with flying close to the lens, the boil
weevils fly into the machine so that 1t
is necessary every now and then to
stop cranking In order to clean out
the camera.
Bees Are Hard Subjects.
Honey bees are catalogued as bad
actors. In the midst of a picture one
day last summer the bees descended
en- masse upon the unprotected
camera man, who fed and hid In q
cellar. The picture could be COM
pleted only by erecting canvas shell
ter over the camera so as to make
shade. Bees will not fly into shady
places.
More than 20 motion pictures fea-
turing insects in star roles have been
made by the Department Of Agricul-
ture. They include pictures of pests
such as the pink boil worm, which de-
stroys cotton, the Mexican bean beetle,
the European corn borer, stable fly,
bedbug, poultry louise, cockroach,
grasshopper and others. The pictures
are distributed free to agricultural
colleges, county agents, and other az
ricultural agencies, some of the reels
being exhibited all over the world.
Recently the department camera
men made a special trip to Grasshop-
per glacier in Montana to photograph
some of the frozen prehistoric grass
hoppers. This glacier Is famous. 1t
IL believed that these pests were swept
up the canyon through the ages by
strong winds, which dashed them
against the precipitous walls, the
grasshoppers then falling into the gla-
cisr and coming frozen in the ice.
Grasshoppers hundreds Of years old,
but not unlike the grasshoppers Of the
present day, have been found there,
perfectly preserved. The Melted ice
at the end of the glacier deposits the
grasshoppers on both banks, tons of
the insects having been piled up in
this way. The department camera
men made an ascent of $4,000 feet to
take their pictures.
Live grasshoppers are difficult to
photograph. The lady grasshoppers,
In particular, are camera shy. Recent
~ In making some movies of a female
laying eggs it was necessary for the
camera man to crawl along road
side trench on his stomach and "shoot"
close LANCE, catching the insect I'M
aware.
Working Far kfield.
Federal guarantees on pests, such
rs the European corn borer and the
Japanese beetle, are strict and the
department camera men are prohibited
from bringing them into the District
In the studio. This results in consider
able expense, in that the movie force
must sometimes 60 far afield to take
pictures of the insects In their natural
environment.
The expense Is, however, justified,
say the department movie men, who
point out that it Is much better to
take authentic pictures than to fake"
insects in the laboratory. Faxed in
sects are used occasionally, but only
In animated cartoons. An amusing in
cident In this connection was the con-
struction of a mechanical reproduction
Of Mexican bean beetle, so life
like that 1t fooled even the department
sntomologists, who thought 1t real.
The occasion for this deception was
the building of an outline map on
which 1t was desired to show graph
ically the spread of the pest since its
Introduction into the United States.
The habits of the beetle were studied
carefully by the movie men, and an
imitation was made that bore life
like resemblance to the original. 1t
was made to crawl around the map
at will, and the entomOlogists wanted
to know how the photographers had
contrived so perfectly to train the in
sect.
Bedbugs, like the clothes moth, re-
fuse to act under the glare of the
studio lights, or even in ordinary day
light In order to make them perform
1t was necessary to build miniature
bed in which ferret wearing night
gown was placed. The ferret had to
be chloroformed to insure its remain
ing stationary, and the bugs, seeming
easy prey, readily came out for q
feast, despite the bright lights.