THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the crops have been principally gathered. They will, 

 however, probably do great damage to wheat fields, and if 

 the fall should remain dry and warm, they will deposit 

 their og^?, and, we fear, give trouble next year. A severe 

 frost, followed by cold weather, would probably destroy 

 these insects. They are now coming in this direction in 

 swarms, and will doubtless be here in a few days. In 

 North-wcstorn Kansas they fill the air so as to obscure 

 the sun. They have been traced for a distance of two 

 hundred miles above Fort Kearney. The Marysville En- 

 terprise says of the grasshoppers in that section : ''They 

 alighted ujiou fields, gardens, fruit-trees, and everything 

 green or eatable, and like a march of two hundred and 

 hfty army-corps, devoured everything they touched. 

 This whole country has been taken by them, and the 

 rear-guard is still with us, guarding what vegetables and 

 green leaves the array has left. Farmers are seriously 

 alarmed lest the corn should be totally devoured. They 

 seem to be passing in a south-west direction." 



The fullowing is from the iV^ Y, Scm. Tribune 

 of September 25, 1866 : — 



Grasshoppers im Kansas. — The Leavenworth papers 

 report, that a vast army of grasshoppers have reached 

 Lawrence from the West. They had cleaned out Topeka, 

 the Capitol, of garden vegetables, grass and clover, and 

 left the gruund as if burned with fire. Corn is eaten to 

 the roots. How widely tbey extend is not stated. They 

 travel four or live miles a day; 



Mr. Wm. II. Lykins of Lawrence, Kansas, writes 

 to me as follows, under date of Sept. 27, 1866 : — 



With this I send you a few specimens of the Grasshop- 

 pers or "Locusts" of the ancients, which are now cover- 

 ing the land. [These have failed to arrive. B. D. W.] All 

 that you have ever heard or read of their vast numbers 

 can now be seen in Kansas. Coming so late in the sea- 

 son, they have not done much damage, except in a few 

 cases where they have attacked fall wheat, corn-blades 

 and tobacco. One gentleman informed me, that they ar- 

 rived on his farm about daylight, and before breakfast 

 had completely eaten up a patch of tobacco of about five 

 acres, and then sat on the fence and begged for^ *'ehaw" 

 from every one that passed. The latter part of the story 

 is rather doubtful. They first made their appearance 

 about Salina, high upon the Smoky Hill fork of the Kan- 

 sas River, and from thence have spread over Eastern 

 Kansas. There is something weird and unearthly in 

 their appearance, as in vast hosts they scale walls, house- 

 to jis and fences, clambering over each other with a creak- 

 ing, clashing noise. Sometimes they march in even re- 

 gular lines, like hosts of pigmy cavalry, but generally 

 rush over the ground in coufused swarms. At times they 

 rise high in the air, and circle round like gnats in the 

 sunshine. At such times I think they are caught by cur- 

 rents of our prevailing westerly winds, and are thus dis- 

 tributed over vast tracts of country. They are now de- 

 positing their eggs, and we shall probably have a second 

 edition of them next spring. One farmer informed me, 

 that on his place there were about four holes to every 

 square inch; and in some places I have seen their nests 

 even thicker than this. At what time do the eggs hatch 

 out? 



The following- letter is from M. M. R., of Dou- 

 glass County, Kansas, and bears date October 1, 

 1866 :— 



The grasshoppers have made their appearance in this 

 part of Kansas by the billion. They are now depositing 

 their eggs in the ground, and almost every person is won- 

 dering if tbey will make their appearance next summer. 

 We apply to you for information. Will their eggs hatch 

 out next spring, and ciin they survive the winter without 

 being destroyed? . Farmers are predicting, that we shall 

 not be able to grow anything next summer ou account of 

 the grasshoppers. 



How remarkably do the above graphic descrip- 

 tions aLiree with that given by the prophet Joel of 

 the locusts of Scripture ! "A day of darkness and 

 of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick dark- 

 ness. * * The land is as the garden of Eden before 

 them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea. 



and nothing shall escape them ! * * Like the noise 

 of chariots on the top.s of mountainsshall they leajf, 

 like the noi.se of a flame of fire tiiat devoureth the 

 stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. * * 

 Before their face the people shall be much pained: 

 all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run 

 like mighty men ; they shall climb the wall like 

 men of war ; and they shall march every one on 

 his way, and they shall not break their ranks. * * 

 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall 

 run upon the wall ; they shall climb up upon the 

 house.s; they shall enter in at the windows like a 

 thief" {Joel, Chapt. II, 2—9.) 



The facts referred to above, coupled with the cir- 

 cumstance that Dr. Velie found this same insect 

 very abundant in 1864 in Colorado, and heard that 

 it was by far the most troublesome and prevalent 

 grasshopper there, indicates that it must have tra- 

 velled from Colorado to Kansas and Nebraska in 

 186G, being probably assisted in passing the inter- 

 vening barren plains by westerly winds. 



There can be little doubt, I think, that wherever 

 the insect has laid eggs this avitumn, there the 

 great bulk of the eggs, unless previously destroy- 

 ed, will hatch out next spring. In this event, the 

 mischief will be a hundred-fold as great as any in- 

 flicted in 1866. For then the country will have to 

 subsist them, not only for a few weeks in the per- 

 fect or winged state, but for several months, while 

 they are slowly and gradually attaining maturity. 

 In confirmation of this theory, it may be observed, 

 that in the case quoted above of their infesting Min-. 

 nesota, they occurred in two successive years. It 

 is possible, indeed, that some very peculiar weather, 

 for instance very heavy rains, followed immediate- 

 ly by very heavy frosts, might destroy their eggsj 

 but I would give but very little for such a chance. 

 As to their natural enemies — skunks, shrew-mice, 

 moles, birds, toads, spiders, cannibal and parasitic 

 iu.sects, &c., &c. — it is out of the question that they 

 can exist on the spot in sufficient numbers, to make 

 any impression upon such hosts of egg-cells as are 

 stated to be already constructed. In a year or two's 

 time such enemies might multiply, so as to form an 

 efficient check to the iirture multiplication of this 

 grasshopper. But, in their present numbers, which 

 are of course proportioned to the numbers of the 

 various species of insects, &c., usually found in 

 Kansas and Nebraska, it is impossible that they 

 can exert any influence upon so multitudinous a 

 foe. 



It might be supposed at first sight, if the Hate- 

 ful Grasshopper can hatch out in Kansas and Ne- 

 braska in the spring of 1867, from eggs laid in the 

 autumn of 1866, by females which had travelled 

 thither from Colorado, and if, as I have stated to 

 be likely, they can arrive at maturity during the 

 summer of 1867 in Kansas and Nebraska, that in 

 the autumn of 1867 they will lay a fresh stock of 

 eggs there and propagate thus indefinitely from 

 year to year. But there are seientiiTc considera- 

 tions which make such a contingency highly im- 

 probable. Dr. Velie, the Illinois Ornithologist, 

 and Dr. Parry, the Iowa Botanist, both of whom 



