INSECT ENEMIES OF WESTERN FORESTS 



209 



Figure 100. — One of the largest termites, Zootermopsis angusticollis, and ex- 

 amples of its work: A, Winged adult, X 1.5; B, second reproductive caste, 

 X 1.5; C, worker, X 2; D, soldier, X 4; E, tunnels in wood. (Edmonston.) 



sheep have to be moved to other ranges. Moreover, the damage 

 to browse plants may carry over from year to year and reduce the 

 available feed for several years. Fortunately there are compara- 

 tively few insects that cause serious damage to range plants. 



The damage which grasshoppers may do to the grazing areas 

 is well known to everyone, and the insects themselves are such 

 common pests as to require no description. They are often par- 

 ticularly abundant in grassy meadows, where the females lay 

 their eggs in the ground, usually during the fall of the year, and 

 new broods emerge each spring to feed on all kinds of green 

 and dry vegetable matter. The nonmigratory grasshoppers re- 

 main in a given locality and produce a new brood each year, under 

 favorable conditions becoming excessively abundant and destruc- 

 tive. Others are migratory in habit and, after breeding to 

 enormous numbers and having developed wings, travel across 

 the country devouring every growing thing in their path. 



Much attention has been given to the control of grasshoppers, 

 and effective methods have been devised, the most satisfactory 

 consisting in spreading poisoned baits broadcast over the breed- 

 ing areas at about the time the young hoppers first come out and 

 begin feeding. A good bait consists of a mixture of 1 pound of 

 toxaphene, % pound of chlordane, or 2 ounces of aldrin to 25 

 pounds of bran or middlings, 3 bushels of sawdust, and enough 



