OCR Text |
Show Grain Belt Prepares For 'Hopper Attach Poison F?:iit Offensive Awaits Insects as Federal. State Farm Loaders Seek Means of Protecting This ear's Bumper Crop By JOSEPH V. LaBINE Kids er.ioy devilish pranks. Remember how we used to catch grasshoppers, pull o:Y 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 titan the year-after-year grasshopper menace tit at has damaged America's most verdant crops every summer since the early IPSOs. Preventative measures have mot with minor success; this year the United States department of agriculture wants of an even worse invasion. 'Hoppers swarm like a horde of angry bees from one f.eld 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 men fear the millenium has arrived. But when fall comes the grasshoppers disappear and farmers breath. 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 year's grasshoppers grasshop-pers have deposited millions of eggs which will hatch uitder favorable conditions and bring more trouble next summer. This routine has been repeated re-peated for several years but farm men have not been idle. They've discovered the most elective method of combating combat-ing 'hoppers is poison bait, a mixture cl brail, sawdust, blackstrap black-strap molasses, crude arsenic and water. Innumerable tens of this delectable de-lectable diet have been ottered the grasshoppers sir.ee 1330: Otis year sa estimated 1TS.I.V0 tons will be reeded and much of it will be supplied by the federal government. Summer Morning's Fsi.ime. 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 midwestem farm area and watch it being spread from a wa; on or truck. Vni-.ke humans, grasshoppers are particular when they eat and the bait spreaders must be patient. In ordinary summer weather the feeding feed-ing t.me is from S a. m. until neon. They figuratively slay in bed if the temperature is less than 65 degrees: de-grees: moreover they can't be bothered both-ered with feed if it's warmer than Si1 degrees. The grasshopper's private life is an interesting charier in the study of entomology. He hatches from an egg which is buried in the soil by his mother the previous autumn. As many as 4-U eggs are known to have been deposited in one UmneL In contrast to many ether injurious injuri-ous insects, the grasshopper when r.ewly 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 grow th period he sheds h:s skm five or six times. Cast-off skins are often mistaken for dead grasshoppers. Fight for F.xistence. Man is not the grasshopper's only enemy. Throughout its brief life the insect is plagued by parasitic two-wiuged two-wiuged fines which deposit maggots cn the 'hopper. These maggots devour de-vour the internal portions of the grasshopper's body and soon cause its death. F.it one cf the most important factors in grasshopper control is the bird. Except for those living solely on vegetable matter, birds feed on 'hoppers and destroy large numbers of them. The assertion has r.f'.en been made that grasshoppers are now so abundant because game birds are less numerous than formerly. for-merly. But the worst grasshopper outbreaks m American h. story oc- curred in the great plains region 50 to SO years ago when game birds were far more plentiful than now. Fox 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 harard until the next outbreak occurs. No definite proof oi this theory has ever been offered. It has been established, however, that dry, warm weather is favorable favora-ble for grasshoppers and that the most severe outbreaks occur either during or following periods oi drouth. Ferhaps most drouth cycles cy-cles are about seven years long, which would explain the 'hopper tradition. tra-dition. Rains Haven't Helped. Eut wet weather is unfavorable and great numbers of grasshoppers often ol:e during wet springs from disease. Such is not the case thus year, however, when the department depart-ment of agriculture is planning the most active anti-grasshopper cam-pain cam-pain in its history. The current soring has been wet in the Middle West and great plains area but grasshoppers will be bad anyway. Says the bureau of entomology: "Recent rams over a wide belt in the Middle West and great plains area have much delayed the hatching hatch-ing of grassiioppers and have held ll'.ose 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 grow th of vegetation have kept grasshoppers out of the crops, but it is too early to indicate that control con-trol will not be needed over this w ide area. 'The delayed hatch may make it necessary to make several applications applica-tions of poison bait, rather than one or two. which would be sufficient if all the 'hoppers hatched at about the same time." Widespread outbreaks are expected expect-ed this year in South Dakota. Montana. Mon-tana. Oregon. Missouri. Iowa. Nebraska. Ne-braska. Wyoming. Colorado, Utah. Arirona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The greatest trouble is expected in North and South Dakota, Da-kota, which together will require 65.CV.X1 tons of hopper bait. Total requirements this year for the entire en-tire nation are expected to be ITS.-(XXI ITS.-(XXI tons: two states will need one-third one-third of itl Fxlra Generations. The situation is made more acute by an unprecedented happening last fall. Whereas grasshoppers are known to hatch only once year, last fall an extra generation appeared ap-peared which ruined considerable fall sown gram and added greatly to the number of eggs which passed the winter m the soil. necognii.ng that successful con- - s f - v.?9 i ! ; A 1 i -. 1 . ! v .' 1 '" !' - i : J GRASSHOPPERS A menace to American agriculture that equals dust storms and drouth. trod measures depend on co-operation, well-organized campaigns are already under way in many states headed by a trained entomologist who generally works with county agents. In turn come township and community leaders, mixing stations and bait-spreading crews. County financing has supported a large part cf the campaign. Last year 79.CJ1 tons of poison bait were supplied at an approximate approxi-mate cost to the federal government govern-ment of Sl.lO-UYO. This made possible pos-sible a harvest, in many sections where without control the crops would have been a complete loss. State co-operators estimated that crops worth more than $'.OO.OO0.0,l were saved in the north central and great plains r.rea. Itut despite these savings, the losses to crops whore hoppers were not controlled readied nearly ;0iV.c. Such is the picture cf America's current agricultural p.im-uMhe-r.eek. a perennial nuisance that has driven more than one farmer to near insanity. Adding to the discomfort dis-comfort is the fact that these plagues have descended with greatest great-est wrath upon those states which have suffered most harshly from drouth and dust storms during the past eight years. Disaster's Bedfellow. Ferhaps it is logical that grasshoppers, grass-hoppers, dust and drouth should go hand in hand and that one of these pestilences should lead to another. Lack of mo.sture encourages grasshoppers. grass-hoppers. The 'hoppers, in turn, destroy foliage and loosen the earth to be swept about at the mercy of a strong wind. Mere than one visitor from the industrial Fast has looked upon this desolation and turned his eyes away, swearing that drouth, dust and 'hoppers will never be con-Quered. con-Quered. But there's always another year and each spring the 'hopper belt farmer faces life confidently, imbued im-bued 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 li'1'9 has the great plains area been so plenti- fully showered with spring rams. I Maybe the ram will kill these grasshoppers; grass-hoppers; maybe the weather will I become freakish and keep them 1 from doing great damage: maybe j the poison bait will work better than before. Maybe. At least we'll hope so! C Wrilrrn N c n.r-T t'nk'n. j' ,f INDICATIONS FOR 1933 ' jf''' ' j-' JijZ V ;Wi. ''(!'' est .: 1 z " t .i-ist.t -co:) |