The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1936-07-29
CHRISTOPHER
DROUGHT LAND
VILLAIN NOW
Develops Wings, to Become
Migra tory Locust,
Widening Range
By STEPHEN J. McDONOUGH
ASSOCIATED Press Science Editor

WASHINGTON, July 30 = The
grasshopper, companion scourge
with drought on the western plains,
is reported by the Bureau of En-
tomology to be using a trick of
evolution to develop its wings and
become again the migratory locust
which devastated the pioneer crops
IN the 1905.
At the same time insects of all
kinds were reported prospecting
at the expense of man despite the
drought. Some failed to survive
the extreme cold last winter in large
numbers but others are making up
for it. ri
The grasshopper is called the
years worst pest by j. A. Hyslop,
entomologist of the bureau.
1T is growing wings to fly in
stead of hop and is on the move
over wide areas, leaving the burned
out fields of small grains in the
drought area to carry destruction
to relatively unaffected sections, ,"
he declared.
1t Happened Before
Not since the 1905 when similar
dry, hot conditions prevailed, has
the grasshopper developed its wings
to extend the range of his devasta-
tion, he added, and the recent sue
cession of dry years is RESPONSE
bic. The insect has made the change
in an effort to survive. Ordinarily
the wings are stubby appendages.
The grasshopper situation is made
much worse, Hyslop said, by lack
of poison bait, such as was used
effectively in 1884 through Federal
aid.
Only $250,000 was made available
this year for the purchase and
distribution of 100000 gallons of
poison and 5000 tons of bran and
this supply has already been ex-
hausted. ~
Huge Areas wasted
The 'hoppers have been most de-.
structiye in Oklahoma where they
have destroyed $4,000 acres of cot
ton and at least $4,000 acres of
corn, according to DR.. P. N. An
nand of the Bureau of Entomology.
They are menace, he added, in
Iowa, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska,
Wyoming, the Dakotas, Kansas and
Colorado.
Chinch bugs have not been such
serious pest in midwestern states
as they have been during the past
six years because of extensive win
ter-killing, Hyslop said, although,
it has done some damage in eastern
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Ok
lahoma.
Cutworms of many species have
been especially abundant through
out the greater part of the coun-
try" he added, and serious wire
worm injury has occurred already
in the South Atlantic States, the
Gluf region, the Mississippi Valley
and the Great Basin.
Little commercial crop damage
to wheat by one of its worst enc
mics, the hessian fly, has been re-
corded although heavy infestations
have occurred from New York
westward to Iowa.
Other Pests Numerous
Corn and tomatoes have suffered
from stalk borers, and in Missis-
sippi and Tennessee the sugar-cane
beetle damaged considerable corn.
The cooling moth, one of the prin-
cipal enemies of fruit growers. was
reported increasing rapidly in the
middle Atlantic, and East Central
States despite heavy mortality
during the winter.
The boil weeyil situation in cot
ton is described as mot very bad"
compared with previous years, while
cankerworms are appearing in "un-
usual numbers throughout New
England. the Middle Atlantic and
East Central States and westward