210 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



A knowledge of the life history of this insect suggests to us a 

 few ways in which it may be most easily combatted and its damage 

 lessened. As the females hibernate above ground, burning in early 

 spring must destroy large numbers of them. To be effective, the 

 burning must be close and thorough, and the burned space either 

 quite large or isolated from other infested fields. This must be done 

 before the grass starts, which is usually about the first of April, be- 

 cause the females hibernate very close to the base of the stems, and 

 a close burn after the green blades appear cannot be obtained. 



The damage appears to be most severe on worn-out meadows, 

 fields and lawns. This suggests stimulating the plants, to give them 

 additional vigor, and harvesting as clearly as possible. The June 

 grass should either be cut as soon as the heads begin to turn white, 

 or be fed green. Attacks are most severe on fields that have been 

 seeded for several years and have become partially exhausted. This 

 suggests ploughing deeply, and planting for at least one year with 

 some cultivated crop before reseeding. (Bui. 67, Hatch Mass. Agr. 

 Exp. Sta.) 



Grasshoppers. The several injurious species of grasshoppers oc- 

 curring in Colorado undoubtedly occasion heavier annual loss than 

 any other single insect pest, not excepting the codling moth. It is 

 the object of this brief paper to give the most important informa- 

 tion as to the habits of these destructive insects and the remedies 

 that may be used against them. 



All our specially destructive grasshoppers spend the winter in 

 the egg state in the ground. The eggs are from about 3 to 4-six- 

 teenths of an inch in length, cylindrical in form, yellowish white 

 to yellowish brown in color and are deposited in compact masses of 

 from about 20 to as many as 75 together. The females dig small 

 holes to the depth of an inch or a little more with the stout ovipos- 

 itor at the tip of the abdomen. The abdomen is then thrust in as 

 far as it will reach and a gluey material is exuded and smeared over 

 the inner wall of the little cavity making it firm. Then the egg 

 mass is deposited and it is also covered with the gluey material 

 which soon hardens and protects the eggs from excessive moisture 

 and from being easily crushed. Egg-laying of some of the species 

 begins about the first of August and continues until hard freezing 

 late in the fall kills all the old females. As a rule, a single female 

 deposits two packets of eggs. 



Tne places most chosen by the females for the purpose of egg- 

 laying are ditch-banks, the borders of fields and road sides. The egg 

 packets are also most often found about the roots of plants, as alfalfa, 

 clover or weeds. If the eggs are at all abundant, a little digging 

 about such plants where the grasshoppers were numerous in the 

 fall will usually reveal them. 



The eggs begin to hatch about as soon as vegetation starts in 

 the spring and continue for several weeks, but the eggs of a single 

 pod all hatch together. The young hoppers begin at once to feed 

 upon such tender growing plants as are at hand various common 

 weeds entering largely into their diet. When young and wingless, 



