37» 



INSECTS—DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



BOCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST.— These 

 insects appear in vast armies, devouring 

 every green thing, like the locusts men- 

 tioned in the Scriptures, and which may 

 be reckoned yet among the plagues of the 

 Eastern States. 



The female locust, in the autumn, de- 

 posits her eggs in small holes or cells 

 made in the earth by means of her ovi- 

 positor. Most of these eggs remain 

 all winter uninjured by the frost, and 

 hatch the following spring, earlier or later, 

 according to the influences of climate. 

 Cold rains in the spring, however, are 



fig. ooo.— Rocky Mountain Locust. 

 a, a, a, female in different positions, ovipositing; b, unripe red peppers. 

 «E£^ x i ra ^ edfr ™^ a remedy for the west 



SHOW nf hOW th«» Peers arc opmbtoH • /• t fa-ur «»(Trrc Iwnd € 



escape by a rapid and prolonged flight. 

 When young they feed near the place 

 where they were hatched, and upon what- 

 ever vegetation is growing in the vicinity. 

 When fully grown, with perfect wings, 

 they collect together, pair, and emigrate in 

 countless myriads to other places in search 

 of food and proper places in which to depos- 

 it their eggs for the next year's crop, after 

 doing which they soon die and disappear. 

 In the Practical Entomologist, Dr. Walsh 

 states that he does not think the hateful 

 grasshopper will ever cross the Mississippi 

 to pass onward to the Eastern States, and 

 recommends the authorities to offer 

 a bounty for every bushel of eggs. 



The western grasshopper differs 

 from its eastern relative, the red- 

 legged locust, merely by having the 

 wings much more elongated, so as 

 to be adapted for long flights. In 

 habits they are much alike; the 

 red-legged locust feeds on grass, 

 leaves and vegetables, and is also 

 migratory. The red-legged locust, 

 2; in certain seasons, collects in great 

 g* numbers, and some years ago, in 

 p~ certain parts of New York, did con- 

 F" siderable damage, especially to gar- 

 den vegetables, not sparing even 

 A planter in 



showing how the eggs are arranged ; c. a few eggs lying 



loose on the gronnd; d, e, shows the earth partially re- ern locust or grasshopper, recom- 

 moved, to illustrate an egg-mass already in place, and one mends that : "As soon as the grass- 

 being placed ; /, shows where such a mass has been cov- hopper has laid its eggs the plan- 

 ters plow their fields and turn the 



ered up. 



said to destroy the young insects. The 

 grasshoppers when first hatched exactly 

 resemble the old insects in form, with the 

 exception that they have no wings or 

 wing cases. Rudimentary wings and 

 wing cases are developed when they cast 

 their skins, but they are as yet perfectly 

 incapable of flight, and can merely walk 

 or jump from plant to plant; and it is 

 only when they have shed their skins for 

 the last time that they acquire fully de- 

 veloped wings and are capable of any 

 flight whatsoever. This insect, from the 

 egg to the perfect state, is injurious, de- 

 vouring almost any vegetable substance, 

 (sorghum and osage orange alone being 

 excepted by some of our correspondents,) 

 and is most easily destroyed by wholesale 

 when young and unable to fly, as the per- 

 fect insect when disturbed can readily 



soil over so that the eggs will be buried 

 under a layer of earth, which will crush 

 them and thus destroy the spring crop of 

 grasshoppers. This experiment has 

 been made in small spots of ground 

 where myriads of eggs were deposited, 

 and not a grasshopper came from under 

 the layer of soil that covered the eggs." 



Besides the remedies already mention- 

 ed for destroying the eggs of the western 

 locust or grasshopper, crushing and killing 

 the young insects by means ot a large 

 roller, has been spoken of; the young 

 grasshopper, however, being exceedingly 

 agile, many doubtless would make their 

 escape. It has been proposed not to 

 burn the prairies in the autumn, as is 

 usually the practice, but to defer it until 

 spring, when the young grasshoppers are 

 yet wingless and the grass dry, then to- 



