34 CALIFORNIA STzVTE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



There is, however, a close relation to this pest — Melanoplvs devas- 

 tator— with which California is too well acquainted. This is the locust 

 which appears in swarms each season in some parts of the State, the 

 foothill regions of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys being 

 especially afflicted with their visitations. Fortunately their breeding 

 grounds are not so extensive, their swarms much smaller, and their 

 destructive powers vastly less than M. spretus. But they are bad 

 enough. From historic records, it is evident that this pest was much 

 worse in California in early days than at the present time, swarms of 

 them having been recorded even near San Francisco. This is natural^ 

 as the insects breed in the wild, uncultivated land, and, as the country 

 becomes more densely settled and more intensely cultivated, their 

 breeding area is more and more circumscribed, their swarms reduced, 

 and their destructive area lessened. Their favorite breeding grounds 

 are now found on the warm slopes of the foothills, those having a 

 southwestern exposure being preferred. Here, where the soil is too thin 

 for agricultural purposes, and is left undisturbed, large swarms of 

 M. devastator breed and do great damage on the cultivated lands in the 

 vicinity. Fortunately, there are efficient parasites for these pests, and 

 they do not often appear in destructive numbers for two years in suc- 

 cession in the same place. 



Grasshoppers in such localities usually make their appearance during 

 the latter part of May, and in the following months of June and July 

 cause their greatest destruction. After that, effects of disease, attacks 

 of natural enemies, and their extension over a wider area so reduce 

 their numbers in a given locality that their depredations are compara- 

 tively so small as to pass unnoticed. 



Grasshoppers generally first appear in greatest numbers along the 

 edges of the foothills, which are their breeding ground, in isolated 

 swarms, often many miles apart. When first hatched, their powers of 

 destruction are not great; but with each molt their voraciousness 

 increases, and unless steps are promptly taken to combat them, or 

 unless attacked by their natural enemies in numbers, cultivated crops 

 in their path may be seriously injured or destroyed by them. 



The grasshopper has many enemies. A tachina fly, about the size of 

 the common house-fly, and which it much resembles, is one of the most 

 abundant and most destructive to the hoppers. Birds also aid greatly 

 in their destruction. The common meadowlark is among the most 

 active destroyers of this insect. When grasshoppers are plentiful the 

 meadowlark does not eat the entire insect, but only the abdomen or a 

 portion of one, and this habit enables it to destroy a great number 

 every day. Blackbirds of all varieties are also great aids in destroying 

 them, but, unfortunately, the birds are breeding and taking care of 

 their young when the grasshoppers first appear, and as their nesting- 



