February', '14] DEAN: KANSAS GRASSHOPPER CONTROL 69 



The bait when flavored with oranges or lemons was fotind to be not 

 only more attractive, l^ut also more appetizing, and thus was eaten 

 by more of the grasshoppers. 



The damp mash or bait should be sown broadcast in the infested 

 areas early in the morning, or about the time the grasshoppers are 

 beginning to move about from their night's rest. It should be scat- 

 tered in such a manner as to cover five acres with the amount of bait 

 made by using the ciuantities of ingredients given in the above formula. 

 Since very little of the bran mash is eaten after it becomes dry, scat- 

 tering it broadcast in the morning, and very thinly, places it where 

 the largest number will find it in the shortest time. Sowing it in this 

 manner also makes it impossible for birds, barnj^ard fowls, or live stock 

 to secure a sufficient amount of the poison to kill them. On alfalfa 

 fields, in order to secure the best results, the bait should be applied 

 after a crop has been removed and before the new crop has started. 

 Inasmuch as the poisoned bait does not act quicklj^, it will be from 

 two to four days before the grasshoppers are found dead, and these 

 will be more numerous in the sheltered places. It does not require 

 much of the poison to kill them. Even a small portion from one of 

 the poisoned flakes will be sufficient to cause death. 



Last spring, early in the season the Department of Entomology 

 sent out advance notices and circulars of warning, stating how favor- 

 able the conditions had been for the female grasshoppers to oviposit, 

 and how the mild, dry winter had enabled fully 90 per cent of the eggs 

 to pass the winter uninjured. This information was published in all 

 the farm journals and nearly every daily and county newspaper in the 

 state. Later, the department not only sent out another warning, 

 stating that the hoppers had hatched out in enormous numbers, and 

 that they were already seriously injuring crops, but also sent two men 

 to demonstrate the practical methods of control. Three district farm 

 demonstration agents were also busy in urging the farmers to prepare 

 to fight the grasshoppers that were already devouring their crops. 

 Many farmers, and in one place the entire county, put into operation 

 the methods recommended and profited thereby, but the great major- 

 ity either paid no attention to the warning or failed to put the methods 

 of control in operation at the opportune time; that is, while the grass- 

 hoppers are young or are just migrating into the cultivated fields, and 

 thus they soon found themselves facing the most serious outbreak of 

 grasshoppers known in their part of the state. They were now com- 

 pelled either to destroy the almost fully grown hoppers or allow them 

 to completely devastate their crops, kill their orchards and destroy 

 their shade trees. The farmers were now crying for help. Mr. G. E. 

 Thompson, the di^strict farm demonstration agent of Southwest Kansas, 



