REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 



439 



several of our best insecticides. Kerosene emulsion would probably 

 be the best application that could be employed when the bugs occur on 

 trees. When assembled on the ground in patches or large areas, as 

 reported from North Dakota, kerosene mixed with water by brisk 

 stirring or, better still, unmixed, could be effectively used for their 

 speedy destruction Hot water, when convenient, would be a simple 

 remedy. Any one of these applications would be more effective upon 

 the insect in its early stages, before the development of wings has 

 given a degree of protection. 



The Grasshopper Plague in Western New York. 



(Ord. Orthoptera: Fam. Acridid^e.) 



The injuries from grasshoppers (locusts) in the State of New York 

 noticed in the brief undistributed report for 1893, which were so severe 

 as to have been characterized as a " grasshopper plague," have been 

 followed by similar injuries in 1894. The following notice of it, given 

 to the Country Gentleman of October 12, 1893, and in part included 

 in the report above named, will apply, in the main, to the visitation of 

 the present year. 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



It is fortunate for the agricultural interests of the Eastern United 

 States that it is exempt from the ravages of the destructive grasshopper 

 of the West, Melanoplus spretns, or the " Rocky Mountain locust," as 

 it is familiarly called, which in years gone by brought fearful losses, 

 suffering, starvation, and death to many families and communities in 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. In these three States, with Missouri 

 added, the loss to crops in the year 1874 was estimated at one hundred 

 millions of dollars. It is probable that severe injuries by this particu- 

 lar species will never occur east of the Mississippi river. Its perma- 

 nent breeding grounds lie far to the westward; and, as in its most 

 extended migrations it has not crossed the Mississippi, there is no fear 

 that it will do so hereafter, now that, thanks to the labors of the 

 United States Entomological Commission, its eastward migrations and 

 its ravages have been virtually brought under control. 



In the eastern portion of the United States — of the more than one 

 hundred spec ies of locust (commonly called grasshoppers) that are known 

 to science, there are, strictly speaking, no migratory ones. The reason 

 of this is obvious; there are no arid regions of elevated, treeless plains 



