VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, 631 



State of these insects; for some will be effectual as soon as they are hatched; others 

 when they begin to crawl ; and others again when they begin to fly. And expe- 

 rience has taught the Transilvanians, that it would have been of great service, to 

 have diligently sought out the places where the females lodged ; for nothing was 

 ipore easy, than carefully to visit those places in March and April, and to destroy 

 their eggs or little worms with sticks or briars ; or if they were not to be beaten 

 out of the bushes, dunghills, or heaps of straw, to set fire to them; and this me- 

 thod would have been veiy speedy, convenient, and successful; as it has been in 

 other places. But in the summer, when they have marched out of their spring 

 quarters, and have invaded the corn fields, &c. it is almost impossible to extir- 

 pate them, without thoroughly threshing the whole piece of land that harbours 

 them, with sticks or flails, and thus crushing the locusts with the produce of 

 the land. 



Finally, when the corn is ripe, or nearly so, there is no other method of 

 getting rid of them, or even of diminishing their numbers, but to surround 

 the piece of ground with a multitude of people, who might fright them away 

 with bells, brass vessels, and all other sorts of noise. But even this method 

 will not succeed, till the sun is pretty high, so as to dry the corn from the dew; 

 for otherwise they wdll either stick to the stalks, or lie hid under the grass. But 

 when they happen to be driven to a waste piece of ground, they are to be beaten 

 with sticks or briars; and if they gather together in heaps, straw or litter may 

 be thrown over them, and set on fire. But this method serves rather to lessen 

 their numbers, than totally destroy them ; for many of them lurk under the grass 

 or thick com, and in the fissures of the ground, from the sun's heat: hence it 

 is requisite to repeat this operation several times, in order to diminish their 

 numbers, and consequently the damage done by them. It will likewise be of 

 use, where a large troop of them has pitched, to dig a long trench, of an ell in 

 width and depth, and place several persons along its edges, provided with brooms, 

 and such like things, while another numerous set of people form a semicircle, 

 that takes in both ends of the trench, and encompasses the locusts, and, by 

 making the noise above-mentioned, drive them into the trench; out of which 

 if they attempt to escape, those on the edges are to sweep them back, and then 

 crush them with their brooms and stakes, and bury tl>em, by throwing in the 

 earth again. 



But when they have begun to fly, there should be horsemen on the watch in 

 the fields, who on any appearance of the swarm taking wing, should immediately 

 alarm the neighbourhood by a certain signal, that they might come and fright 

 them from their lands by all sorts of noise; and if, tired with flying, they happen 

 to pitch on a waste piece of land, it will be very easy to kill them with sticks 

 and brooms, in the evening, or early in the morning, while they are wet with 



