18 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 333 



ported by the United States Bureau of Entomology and Plant 

 Quarantine, the Montana Agricultural Extension Service, and 

 this office. Two men were employed for two and one-half 

 months. 



A comparison of the bait needed for 1937 in relation to that 

 predicted and used in the three previous years can be obtained 

 from table 5. In general the outlook for grasshoppers in 1937 is 

 the most serious for any year since 1934. As mentioned in re- 

 gard to the 1935 grasshopper work, the predictions are some- 

 times incorrect but, in spite of the errors which creep in, the 

 survey method furnishes the most reliable information avail- 

 able. Attempting to cover such a vast area in a very limited 

 time and with a reasonable expenditure of funds will necessarily 

 result in some mistakes. The goodness of the predictions in 

 1935 and 1936 can be obtained from table 6 in which the 

 amounts of bait predicted from the survey and the amounts 

 actually used are given. Often such comparisons may be ob- 

 scured by such factors as drought, delay in control operations, 

 and lack of bait which will, of course, result in less bait being 

 used. This is no reflection on the survey prediction. However, 

 when far more bait was used than was predicted an out and out 

 error in the survey is indicated. Twelve such mistakes were 

 made in 1935 and five in 1936. 



THE MORMON CRICKET SITUATION. 1936-1937 



Mormon crickets have been on the increase in Montana 

 since 1931. In that year but a few hundred acres in southern 

 Montana were infested. Today the overwintering eggs are in 

 the soil to such an extent that over one million acres will be 

 badly infested next spring and not long after hatching occurs 

 the march of the cricket armies will begin. Sixteen counties 

 are vitally concerned with this problem and two or three others 

 to a less serious extent. In addition, 350,000 acres on the Tongue 

 River and Crow Indian Reservation will be infested in 1937 

 unless a vigorous campaign of suppression is started early in 

 the season. 



Cricket control work for several years has been handicapped 

 by not starting the work at a time when the best results could be 

 obtained. In general, crickets hatch much earlier in the spring 

 than grasshoppers. It is not unusual to have the young crickets 



