GRASSHOPPERS 193 



or burned with straw. A band of tar road oil three inches wide 

 may take the place of the furrow. In irrigated regions a water 

 barrier is effective. Some states have found burning the bugs in 

 their winter quarters to be extremely helpful ; and this may protect 

 the wheat fields. Spraying the outer rows of corn with nicotine 

 sulfate has also been practiced. 



It has been observed that in chinch-bug years farmers who allow 

 pigeon grass and other so-called weeds to grow among the corn 

 have not suffered from the attacks of chinch bugs as much as the 

 more careful farmers. Careless farming is not to be encouraged, 

 but it may be suggested that in cultivating corn in chinch-bug 



FIG. 212. A grasshopper ovipositing. (After Howard.) 



years the three or four outer rows be left uncultivated in order 

 that the weeds may have a chance to grow and protect the balance 

 of the corn crop. 



Grasshoppers. It is hardly desirable to describe the various 

 species of grasshoppers in a work of this kind. All of our related 

 grasshoppers have approximately the same life history. They 

 are really locusts belonging to the family Acrididae, not grass- 

 hoppers. The winter is passed in the egg stage, the young hatch 

 in spring. The wingless young are rather inactive and clumsy 

 until after the second or third moult. If food is scarce at this time, 

 they congregate in great numbers and march across country, 

 devouring every green thing in their path. Often fields and forests 

 are deprived of every bit of foliage. 

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