| Show HOW TO CONTROL THE grasshopper we have hav an over abundance of grasshoppers in places this year in some places they are assuming a menace ing attitude toward the ithe growing crops while in other places they are not damaging the crops as yet to speak of but should they increase very it would not be long until many of the now thrifty promising fields would have to be worked in order to control the pests or the yields would be considerably reduced some of the hoppers have reached the adult stage already while others have not been hatch led ed very long in fact an examination of some of the fields show that there are a grea great many eggs yet to hatch the wet we cold spring has been conducive to retarding the hatching of the hoppers and a agrest great many ol 01 of them have perished in the cole cold rains while the spring has been very unfavorable to the hatching batching it has extended the period over which they will be coming out in order to fight fichta a pest in the most effective way we must know somewhat of the life history and attack it in the weakest place the weakest place in the life history of most lin insects sects is while in the egg tago stag the eggs of the hoppers which are now leing us are re bayed in august and september they remain remain in the ground until the following cpr spring ing some of 0 them appearing in may and the rest generally come in june three armore or more weeks are required for the hopper to bee become ome an adult the eggs are laid in the high dry places around the land the ditch banks knowls and stack yards r as a arc r u used 6 a g great re a t de deal al for or the th 0 laying lay ri of 0 eggs eggs 0 old I 1 d pastures P altures a and nd grass lands ands are ae favor favorite it e pla concluded on page four HOW TO CONTROL THE grasshopper from pa page ge one ces in which to lay eggs uncultivated land of almost ev every i er y sr sor tare are excellent places for t them e to breed eccli fr female riale lays i from twenty five tai 16 fifty eggs and about twos two weeks mier later another deposit of eggs is id made of an equal number the eggs laying comes during the months of august and september they remaining rema remain inin in the ground ovir over winter and jegen to hatch in the month bof f may most of them having hatched by the later part of june some kinds of hoppers lay one hundred and fifty eggs P per er season season making a possible increase crea se of about seventy five times T there liere are several natural enemies to the grass hoppers epich which aid very materially in their control one of the most amoo in the larva of the gray potato beetle in sonia some places these potato beetles auevery numerous upon examination of some of the ditch banks large numbers of these larva were found feeding ii upon on the eggs of the hopper another disease which is showing its presence among them now is a fungus disease in damp damli weather large numbers of the larger baiger arid older ones are attacked by this fungus when attacked they climb to the top of same some plant and cling to the plant even af bjaast aae aap ja flies which aid in the control of the pest one ohe of these flies lays its eggs on the neck of the hopper and when the eggs hatch the young larva make their way into the neck of them the hopper and soon cause death even though there are several natural to the hopper it is not safe to trust to them to control them some say that we may as well trust to providence but this kind of trust some times timed results as bously as does other forms of fru trust st the most effective way of controlling them is by means of fall plowing pl 0 wing or harrowing alfalfa fields should be cultivated in the fall to expose the eggs to the action of the frost the ditch banks which are never harrowed or plowed are excellent excelle rif places for the breeding of pests of all I 1 kinds the hoppers may be driven off a field of grain by driving them but a short distance at a time after they have hopped a few times they become tired and crawl under convenient shelter and hide by this time others will be jumping and he would n not 0 t be missed hut balt when the edge of 0 the field was reached the grass hoppers driven out would be only the last ones to start up near the edge the balloon catcher is one of the most effective ways of lighting the adult hopper this is made of a light frame at the mouth of a large sack like catcher the balloon consists of a light frame twelve feet long and two feet high with two or three cross bars to give it more rigidity this frame has attached to it a bag of which it forms the mouth and which tapers back to a point about ten feet back of the frame the point is open and when in use se is fastened with a string tied around it like a sack is tied in fact a seamless sack makes a good point to this large bag the bottom of the bag which drags on the ground is often made of heavy canvas while the upper side is of ordinary sheeting oftentimes sheet iron can be placed under the canvas to protect it from the ground strips of light material are a great help in protecting the canvass from ware the frame is usually made of one by four inch stuff and the whole thing is drawn by a single light rope which forks to the two ends and forks again to each borner corner this rope is either fastened to the pommel of a saddle or else to a light whiffletree of a light harness the pony is stared off at a fast trot the air inflates the open mouth ed sack which balloons up and draws along the ground over the meadow grass or grain crop when almost a sack full has aas been caught a sack is edever the other sack and the toppers hoppers are arc sacked up and then buried the old canvasses from a binder make excellent bottoms for this kind of machine wagon covers can easily be made I 1 into this shape and after the hopper season is over they may be and used as acovera a cover again one of the best methods of controlling them is by the use of pasion bran the bran mash is made as follows 20 bg K J paris pans green or white arsenic j ib syrup 2 ats 3 oranges ii S 3 ia 11 gallons of water the 1 and poil skin should be thorough thoroughly mixed together while dry li being taken not to breathe car poison then the water salu evirs e and the orange or lemon should be mixed together and the bran sprinkled with the mixture dry not wet but simply dampener dam Penea until the poison will adhere tn the particles of bran 4 T this mixture should then bp be sown broad broadcast east wherever the lit lit tle tie hoppers are this amount should be enough to scatter ov r s sr veral iveral acres the best time to sow is late in the aft afternoon ernon or evening after the air is damp damn or better still very early in in thi the morning before the hopper happe rj ar are e moving the hoppers will then efel find it before it has had lime to dry out this method of po pj boning m ning can be used on the aqwa youl g I 1 f apers at any timp or even on oi the adults but it is i moat sue if used white iehle they art ar young and before they have been generally distributed in thi the fields grass hoppers are arc hard to poison and it will take a n ca caa or two before the effects of th poison can be estimated 1 the grain fields field should espe bially be guarded against the images of the hopper gholz an alfalfa field borders a arn i 1 field a strip of alfalfa should be left upon which the hopper could feed until th the alfalfa star again the bran binash could lii sown aang aon this strip and a greaf many of them killed before abey could get into the grain fields if a large brush harrow is drag 3 ed over the alfalfa fields as booi soon gj as the hay has been removed it ii y will kill large numbers of th them ef a and help very materially in their 31 control r the kind of grass hoppers that thai are bothering us at present presen i do not travel very far and a mail man n will reap almost all of the bene belle y fit of his work in controlling them and at the same time ha e will be the one damaged if he i does not try to control them g do not trust to providence to 6 keep them in check asit is providence which brings the frosts the winds and the pests as welt weir i as the rain iain and sunshine hi bulletin no of the utah 1 I 1 station may be had upon aepli w im cation which gives in in detail detailed hd v to control grass hoppers c 7 |
