Show grain belt prepares for hopper attack poison bait offensive awaits insects sects as federal state stale farm leaders seek seck means of protecting this years bumper crop by JOSEPH VV labine kids enjoy devilish pranks remember how we used to catch grasshoppers pull off their legs and watch them spit tobacco innocent fun perhaps but today the lowly grasshopper takes his revenge in biblical days there were locust plagues but no worse than the year after year grasshopper menace e that has damaged americas most verdant crops every summer since the early preventative measures have met with minor success this year the united states department of agriculture warns of an even worse invasion hoppers swarm like a horde of angry bees from one field to the next ripping their way through ripening grain and leaving a path of desolation they cut away fence posts destroy shrubbery and finally splatter their gorged bodies against the windshield of a passing car sometimes they blacken the air and make mak e men fear the millennium has arrived but when fall comes the grasshoppers disappear and farmers breathe easier hoping the plague is gone forever then comes winter and with it come entomologists from state and federal departments of agriculture they dig in the resting soil and shake their heads last years grasshoppers have deposited millions of eggs which will hatch under favorable conditions and bring more trouble next summer this routine has been repeated for several years but farm men have not been idle discovered the most effective method of combating hoppers is poison bait a mixture of bran sawdust blackstrap molasses crude arsenic and water innumerable tons of this delectable lec table diet have been offered the grasshoppers since 1930 this year an estimated tons will be needed and much of it will be supplied by the federal government summer mornings pastime poison bait is spread in the fields during late spring or early summer before the hoppers get started any morning this month you can drive through a midwestern farm area and watch it being spread from a wagon or truck unlike humans grasshoppers are particular when they eat and the bait spreaders must be patient in ordinary summer weather the feeding dimeis from 8 a m until noon they figuratively stay in bed it if the temperature is less than 65 degrees moreover they cant be bo bothered th with food if its warmer than 80 90 degrees the grasshoppers private life is an interesting chapter in the study of entomology he hatches from an egg which is burled in the soil by his mother the previous autumn A As s many as eggs are known to have been deposited in one tunnel bunnel in contrast to many other injurious An insects sects the grasshopper when newly hatched closely resembles his parents except that he lacks wings almost immediately upon emerging from the egg he is able to hop about quite actively beginning his life of destruction forty to sixty days later he has grown into maturity during the growth period he sheds his skin five or six times castoff cast off skins are often mistaken tor for dead grasshoppers fight for existence man is not the grasshoppers only enemy throughout its brief life the insect is plagued by parasitic two winged flies which deposit maggots on the hopper these maggots devour the internal portions of the grasshoppers body and soon cause its death but one of the most important factors in grasshopper control is the bird except tor for those living solely on vegetable matter birds feed on hoppers and destroy large numbers of them the assertion has often been made that grasshoppers are now so abundant because game birds are less numerous than formerly but the worst grasshopper outbreaks in american history oc burred in the great plains region 50 to 60 years ago when game birds were far more plentiful than now for years it has been believed that when grasshoppers come they remain seven years destroying crops annually after this period has elapsed they allegedly return to normalcy and are only a minor crop hazard until the next outbreak occurs no definite proof of this theory has everdeen ever ever been offered it has been established however that dry warm weather Is favorable tor for grasshoppers and that the most severe outbreaks occur either during or following periods of drouth perhaps most drouth cycles are about seven years long which would explain the hopper tradition rains helped but wet weather Is unfavorable and great numbers of grasshoppers often die during wet springs from disease such is not the case this year however when the department of agriculture is planning the most active anti grasshopper campain in its history the current spring has been wet in the middle west and great plains area but grasshoppers will be bad anyway says the bureau of entomology recent rains over a wide belt in the middle west and great plains area have much delayed the hatching of grasshoppers and have held those which have hatched in the edges of fields but the reported mortality because of weather has been low not enough have been killed to permit any letting down in the control campaign the delayed development of the grasshoppers and growth bt bf vegetation have kept grasshoppers out of the crops but it Is too early to indicate that thai control will not be needed over this wide area the delayed hatch may make inake it necessary to make several applications of poison polson balt rather than one or two which would be sufficient lelent it if all the hoppers hatched at about the same time widespread outbreaks are expected this year in south dakota montana oregon missouri iowa nebraska wyoming colorado utah arizona new mexico oklahoma and texas the greatest trouble Is expected in north and south dakota which together will require tons of hopper balt bait total requirements this year for the entire nation are expected to be tons two states will need on one third of ill extra generations the situation Is made more acute by an unprecedented happening last fall whereas grasshoppers are known to hatch only once a year last tall fall an extra generation appeared which ruined considerable fallsdown fall sown grain and added greatly to the number of eggs alech passed the winter in the soil recognizing that successful con 17 1 1 1 1 11 17 11 V mr 1 AL A menace to am american agriculture that equals dust storms and drouth arol measures depend on co opera tion well organized campaigns are ara already under way in many states headed by a trained entomologist who he generally works with county agents in turn come township and community leaders mixing stations and balt bait spreading crews county financing has supported a large part of the campaign last year tons of poison bait were supplied at an approximate cost to the federal government of this made possible a harvest in many sections where without control the crops would have been a complete loss state operators cooperators co estimated that crops worth more than were saved in the north central and great plains area but despite these savings the losses to crops where hoppers were not controlled reached nearly such is the picture of americas current agricultural pain I ln inthe nth the neck a perennial nuisance that has driven more than one farmer to near insanity adding to the discomfort Is the fact that these plagues have descended with greatest wrath upon those states which have h ve suffered most harshly from drouth and dust storms during the past eight years disasters bedfellow perhaps it is logical that grasshoppers dust and drouth should go hand in hand and that one of these pestilences should lead to another lack of moisture encourages grasshoppers the hoppers in turn destroy foliage and loosen the earth to be swept about at the mercy of a strong wind more than one visitor from the industrial east has looked upon this desolation and turned his eyes aw away ay swearing that drouth dust and hoppers will never be conquered but theres always another year asar and each spring the hopper belt farmer faces life confidently imbued with an undying faith that his luck must eventually change so it follows that again this year he thinks it will change probably it will because never since 1929 has the great plains area been so plentifully showered with spring rains maybe the rain will kill these thesa grasshoppers maybe the weather will become freakish and keep them from doing great damage maybe the poison bait will work better than before maybe at least well hope sol 0 western newspaper union grasshopper indications FOR 1938 A 0 yav ia MO LOCAL ONS 5 vla SEVERE infestations 2549 25 49 OF INTO M VERY infestations 50 US department OF agriculture |