CHAPTER V 



Remedies. — Natural. 



Aside from man with the numerous contrivances which he 

 has perfected for destroying- destructive locusts in all their 

 stages there are hundreds of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects 

 and other animal forms Avhich also spend the greater portion 

 of their lives in capturing and devouring these insects either as 

 eggs, saltonas or voladoras. These latter a:gencies alone could, 

 and usually do keep the non-migratory kinds within certain 

 liarmless bounds. Bat the migratory forms sometimes baffle 

 all of these natural enemies b\' launching into the air and 

 leaving them behind. 



Although, as just stated, most of these natural enemies are 

 often left behind by the locusts, they nevertheless do excellent 

 work. By paying some little attention to the subject and learning 

 something of tlie habits of these locust-destro3Íng friends man 

 can frequently assist them in their good work and at the same 

 time help himself. By learning to distinguish the useful from 

 those that are the opposite he can protect his friends and 

 destroy his enemies. He can also, by a very little study, learn 

 something of the habits of the locust to be fought and in as- 

 certaining this can the more readily select his remedies of 

 an artificial nature. 



Once a locust become a plague it requires considerable 

 energy on the part of man to reduce its numbers sufficiently 

 to render it harmless. Bej^ond a certain point all the increase 

 in an insect-pest is just that much gain on its natural checks. 

 To bring it back to and below this danger-line is of the first 



