6 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 691. 
CLIMATIC CHECKS. 
After grasshoppers become established in a locality they will not 
starve during an ordinary drought. The variety of plants they can 
use for food enables the young to mature if any vegetation starts 
in the spring. After maturity the adults can always find enough 
food to keep them alive until the eggs are laid. 
When exposed to the sun on hot days, soft dirt, with hard dry 
soil below, reaches a temperature above 150° F. Grasshoppers can 
not deposit eggs in such hot soil and therefore seek shaded ground 
for egg laying. This sometimes results in eggs being placed in poorly 
drained or heavy land, while others are placed in soil that becomes 
Fic. 8.—A neglected roadside. Russian thistles, sagebrush, and other weeds, interspersed with buffalo 
sod, form an ideal breeding ground for grasshoppers. (Original.) : 
overheated later. In either case the vitality of the eggs is materially 
affected, often to the extent of being destroyed, as was noted during 
the hot weather of 1913, which was partly responsible for the reduc- 
tion in the number of grasshoppers hatching the following year. 
NATURAL ENEMIES. 
ENEMIES OF THE EGGS. 
Two of the most effective enemies of grasshopper eggs in Kansas 
are the larvee of the bee flies! and of blister beetles.? (See figs. 9 and 
10.) These are white, grublike creatures that burrow into the cap- 
1 Bombyliide. 2 Meloide. 
