Practical Considerations. 



155 



DESTRUCTION OF THE YOUNG OR * UNFLEDGED LOCUSTS. 



Next to the destruction of the eggs, the destruction of 

 the young or unfledged locusts is most within man's 

 power. The means of accomplishing this result necessarily 

 vary somewhat with the nature of the soil and of the 

 crops. For convenience, they may be classified into : 

 1, burning; 2, crushing; 3, trapping; 4, catching; 5, the 

 use of destructive agents. 



1. Burning. — In a prairie and wheat-growing country, 

 like much of that which this locust devastates, and where 

 there is always an abundance of old straw, burning is per- 

 haps the best means of warfare against the young. These, 

 for some time after they hatch, may be driven into wind- 

 rows or heaps of straw scattered around and through a 

 field, and burned. During cold, damp weather, they will, 

 of their own accord, congregate under such shelter, and 

 may sometimes be exterminated by burning, where no 

 driving is necessary. As to burning the prairie in the 

 spring, while there is much to be said pro and con, it is, 

 all things considered, beneficial in this connection. 

 Scarcely any eggs are laid in rank prairie, and the impres- 

 sion that locusts are slaughtered by myriads in burning 

 extensive areas, is a false one. This practice is beneficial 

 principally around cultivated fields and roadsides, from 

 which the locusts may be driven, or from which they will 

 of themselves pass for the shelter the prairie affords. 



The burning of extensive prairies, after the bulk of the 

 locusts hatch, destroys the nests and eggs of some game 

 birds which feed upon the locusts, but the birds themselves 

 always escape and nest again ; whereas many noxious in- 

 sects, like the chinch bug, are killed ; so that, even leaving 

 the locust question out of consideration, the burning would 

 yet prove advantageous to man. 



