198 



numerous experiments conducted on scientific principles, it proved 

 an utter failure, the locusts that died during the experiments 

 being found to have succumbed to the feral form of Entomoph- 

 ihora Grt/Ui, and not to Mucor exitiosus. 



Exactly similar conclusions have recently been arrived at inde- 

 pendently by Dr. Butler in India, and by Mr. I. B. Pole Evans in 

 the Transvaal, after exoerimentiner with t.h« " Innnnt f niwrns " 



locust fungus. 



From the above account it is evident that the " locust fungus," 



much 



— ~* .t^.v-xx ok, mwu was ejtpecteu, is or no value as an extermi- 

 nator of locusts, and as Entomophthora Gnjlll cannot be cultivated 

 artificially its action is limited and uncertain, yet it appears highly 

 probable that in those cases of reported success following the use 

 of the " locust fungus " preparation, the amount of such success 

 depended in reality on the action of the last-named fungus. 



Quite recently Mr. W. S. Marais, of De Poort, De Aar, has 

 recorded a successful method of destroying locusts wholesale, by 

 the use of arsenite of soda and sugar. One pound of arsenite of 

 soda and four pounds of sugar are dissolved in five gallons of water 

 in a ten gallon drum. Green grass (osgras and klitgras) is then 

 taken and cut up very fine, into pieces not more than an inch long, 

 and the drum is filled with it. The mixture is allowed to soak 

 during the night, and in the early morning it should be spread 

 very thinly round the bushes on which the locusts are sleeping, 

 li f m t0 directly they move, and the swarms are com- 



pletely destroyed. The grass should be spread so thinly that 

 stock cannot pick it up, and what the locusts leave is soon dried 

 up m the sun. 



amount 



_.. v „ w , w „ iiAUU ui, was usea ror locusts m the hopper stage, anu 

 where more advanced, two pounds of arsenite of soda and eight 

 pounds of sugar should be used with the same amount of water 



as given above. 



Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy points out that a wide bag on a frame is 



used extensively m India for the destruction of the hoppers of the 



Bombay Locust. The bag is run through the field fairly rapidly. 



At the end of each run the bag is twisted up and the insects shaken 

 into a corner and fA«fm™,i r 



into a corner and destroyed. 



recommended 



tot exterminating locusts in the Caucasus, and an account of the 

 as ructions issued for ^dealing with the pest in that region is given 

 in the Kew Bulletin, 1894, p. 215. fee 



nsfvlf; 6 ' Pc ! le i E / an8 ' Paper on the South African locust fungus 



CUltU) 



5) 



G. M. 



accompanying 



taken 



in \vi<wl. in ,i m„„ D J «">fiuuucbu irom a pnotograpn vd&vu 



of IoSi g 8 ° me idea ° ,: the rava ** es ca «sed by a plague 



