10 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 408 



served in numbers large enough to cause any great amount of in- 

 jury. 



It is estimated that cool, wet weather during the spring months 

 reduced the grasshopper populations from 5 to 25 per cent. The 

 heaviest mortality was in the northeastern and northern parts of 

 the State. In the Gibson area of Sweet Grass County approxi- 

 mately 30 per cent of the M. bivittatus adults were killed by fungus. 

 Other areas where fungus or disease killed large numbers of 'hop- 

 pers were in Fallon, Valley, Custer, Roosevelt, Pondera, Cascade, 

 and Teton counties. 



Sarcophagid flies were numerous over must of the State but 

 indications are that they did not parasitize a high per cent of the 

 'hoppers. In Roosevelt and McCone counties large numbers of 

 grasshopper egg pods were found parasitized by beefly and blister 

 beetle larvae. 



GRASSHOPPER OUTLOOK FOR 1943 



The 1942 grasshopper egg survey indicates that the 1943 in- 

 festation in most parts of the State will be spotted and not so severe 

 as in the past five years. The most severely infested area will 

 probably be in Big Horn, Yellowstone, Stillwater, Golden Valley, 

 and Musselshell counties. Other counties which may have smaller 

 local areas with heavy 'hopper populations are Dawson, Fergus, 

 Judith Basin, Teton, and Toole. In addition to the above it may 

 be necessary to carry on control work in Pondera, Cascade, Chou- 

 teau, Lewis and Clark, Wheatland, Sweet Grass, Sanders, Carbon, 

 Treasure, Rosebud, Garfield, Prairie, Custer, Fallon, Wibaux, Mc- 

 Cone, Richland, Roosevelt, Valley, and Phillips counties. 



In addition to controlling severe infestations and preventing 

 heavy crop losses, the aim of the coming grasshopper campaign 

 should be to control all small incipient outbreaks to prevent serious 

 infestations from developing during the present period of emer- 

 gency. 



The following are some of the unusual problems which will 

 face those involved in control campaigns in 1943. The acute labor 

 shortage will add to the difficulties of some counties in obtaining 

 workers for the mixing stations, in baiting large areas, and in 

 practicing proper cultural control methods. There will no doubt 

 be an increase of idle and abandoned land. There may be a short- 

 age of control materials and of transportation to the areas needing 

 them. Equipment for mixing and spreading bait will not be readily 

 available. 



These problems make the situation serious especially at a time 

 when the production of food is so essential. All interested parties 



