59 
cerued, though they will even there be one of the best means of relieving 
destitution ; but in more thickly settled portions they will accomplish 
both results. 
BRAN-ARSENIC MASH. 
In 1885, Mr. Coquillett experimented with a mash composed of bran 
and arsenic on the devastating locust in the San Joaquin Valley, Cali- 
fornia, which was so successful that we quote his account in full. 
A remedy that has been very successful in destroying locusts consists of a certain 
proportion of bran, arsenic, sugar, and water. These have been used in different pro- 
portions, but the one that appears to give the best results consists of one part by 
weight of arsenic, one of sugar, and six of bran, to which is added a sufficient quan- 
tity of water to make a wet mash. 
This preparation is usually prepared in washtubs or half-barrels. One of these is 
filled abouD three-fourths full of dry bran, and to this is added about 5 pounds of 
arsenic, which is thoroughly stirred through the bran with a spade or shovel. Five 
pounds of sugar is next thrown into a pail, which is then filled with water and the 
sugar stirred until it is dissolved, when this sugar water is added to the bran and 
arsenic and the three well stirred, more water is added and the stirring continued 
until every portion of the mash becomes thoroughly saturated. 
About a teaspoouful of this mash is placed at the root of each tree, shrub, or plant 
infested with locusts, dropping it in the shade when this can be done. In the case 
of low shrubs or plants nothing more need be done, as the locusts will find their way 
to the poison, but when large trees are treated the locusts should be jarred out of 
them, or be driven out with long poles. 
I have known locusts to be killed by eating some of this mash that had been put 
out over a week previously. The poison works very slowly, and when put out early 
in the morniug will show but little effect upon the locusts until quite late in the day. 
A Devastating Locust that I saw eating the mash at 9 o'clock in the forenoon was 
still alive at 6 in the evening, but was dead w r hen next examined early the next 
morning. 
Allowing a teaspoouful of this mash to each grape vine in the vineyard — the vines 
being 7 or 8 feet apart — this will require about 10 pounds of the dry bran (and arsenic 
and sugar in proportion) to each acre. The cost of the material will vary, but should 
not exceed 50 cents for each acre of grapevines, including cost of labor for mixing 
and applying it. For orchards the cost will be much less than this. 
The addition of sugar to this mash is merely for the purpose of causing the arsenic 
to adhere to the particles of bran, and not for the purpose of increasingits attractive- 
ness, since bran is more attractive to the locusts than sugar. This I have demon- 
strated to my own satisfaction. A quantity of sugar was placed upon the ground 
contiguous to an equal quantity of bran mash; when a locust came to the sugar he 
would eat a little of it, move on a short distance and again take a few bites of the 
sugar, and continue in this manner until he reached the mash, when he would settle 
down, eat his fill, and then move off. The locusts which came to the mash before 
reaching the sugar would, almost without exception, eat their fill of the mash and 
then walk away, but occasionally one would leave the mash and take a few bites Of 
the sugar, only to return to the mash again. None of them eat their fill of the sugar, 
but always manifested an evident preference for the mash. 
This mash was used upon about 300 acres of orchard and vineyard on the Buhach 
plantation, and about 2 weeks later scarcely a living locust was to be seen where 
they could have been counted by the hundred or even thousands before the poison 
had been applied, the ground in many places being literally covered with the dead, 
bodies of the slain. 
