Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-28
FIVE STATES WAR
ON CRASSHOPPERS
Science Used to Fight Plague
as Pests Eat Crops-Iowa
Appropriates $4,000.

BY the Associated Press.
MINNEAPOLIS, Mimi, July %
Science, apparently with its back to the
vail. was fighting today to stem the
tide Of hordes Of creeping. hopping and
Gyins Vrasshoppers. which are playing
havoc with the crops OF Minnesota,
Iowa. Nebraska, North and South Da-
kota.
At Des Moines. the Iowa capital,
plans were; being made for a meeting
of entomologiSts and agricultural lead
ers to devise means of combating the
hordes of insects which have moved re-
lentleSsly across the Missouri River
eastward. At the same time Iowa state
oficials sought an appropriation OF
$4,000 to fight the plague.
Farmers Fight With Poison.
Meanwhile, militant farmers, armed
with poison mixtures, returned TO the
fight. In some Minnesota counties the
situation was so bad that other farm
activities were suspended to leave the
farmers free to war against the pests
Which have penetrated fields, pastures
ard orchards, leaving them virtually
bare OF green vegetation and harvest
able crops.
More than 100000 acres in Kittson
and Marshall Counties in Northwest
Minnesota have been nearly erased
from the harvest picture. Polk County
Is estimated to have suffered so per
cent loss in grain crops. In dozen al
iacent counties the defense fight goes
on, with local infestations reported IN
more than half of the counties in the
State These include corn, potato and
onion, as we'll as grain-growing areas.
A. G. Ruggles, State entomologist,
who is directing State efforts to assist
che farmers, said that unless weather
conditions shift from hot and dry de-
Struction will continue for many weeks
and extend into a far wider zone. Just
now weather conditions for the hop
persY are ideal, he said.
"Hoppers" Fed LethaI Bran.
Bran. molasses and poisons are COM
bined to form the ammunition OF the
defense. All sorts OF farm machines
have been equipped hurriedly with I'M
provised fittings to scatter the mixture
in fields GrasShoppers. tempted by
the molasses, die within "a hours after
sampling the. bran. Their fellows. who
follow an instinct to feed upon the
first unfortunates, reap their reward
r.uch quicker.
!SElions are killed. Ruggles said, but
millions arise to take their places, ao-
Vanclng to the green nelos anedo' ooHne
areas regarded free of the pests at sun
down have been swarming with them
the following noon.
Sections in North Dakota report an
increasingly wide belt of infestauon
with damage less severe than in Min
nesota.
Stop Up Auto Radiators.
Motorists in infested areas find II
necessary to place clothes over radia-
tors to prevent the "hoppers" from
stopping air circulation.
where the grasshopper comes from
no none knows" said A. B. Funk, Iowa
industrial commissioner at Des MONIES
who recalled the extensive damage done
by a grasshopper invasion in 1874 &c
1877
when they had done their work Of
depreciation, they disappeared, no one
knows where or why" he said.
Iowa State officials said the loss In
their State had not been as great as
in Nebraska or South Dakota. In
Nebraska So of the States SO counties
have been infested.