LOCUST RAVAGES IN CALIFORNIA. 
251 
LOCUST ENEMIES. 
First in importance, though silent and unseen, are insects of its own great class. 
They prey upon it from the egg to the adult, while roosting at night or flying by day. 
It is a law of nature that every animal meets with check. A particular plant-feeder 
may swarm to an alarming extent one year, and he unheard of the next, being checked, 
perhaps, by an unseen foe. The Locust Commission referred t o, report, describe, and 
illustrate a host of insects, including minute mites, no larger than pin heads, flies, 
wasps, beetles and the like, whose larva? feed upon the eggs. Wasps, hornets, and 
flies attack the grown insect. 
Mr. Merritt Harden, through his piscatorial proclivities, happily discovered that 
our atrox is badly parasitised with the "red mite" Trombidium locustarum, described 
and named by Professor Riley. Should this parasite multiply, the instinct of the 
locust will cause it to avoid the vicinity, as was distinctly proved in the East with 
the "hated" spretus. 
A certain fly (Tachina) seeks out the locust to deposit by a quick dart upon it an 
egg, which speedily hatches, gnaws into the body of the locust and preys upon its- 
vitals, soon killing it. Swarms of these flies have been known to drive out or turn 
the course of an army of locusts. The so-called "hair-worm " lives a portion of its 
life in the locust. It never originates from horse hairs, as often thought. 
The whole bird family, from the swan to the pee-wee, are valiant friends of man in 
the contest. So important is this aid that public sentiment as well as legislation in 
all the West protects the birds from wanton destruction. Prof. S. Aughey, of Ne- 
braska, investigated this subject in aid of the commission, and names 260 kinds of 
useful birds in the crops or stomachs of which he found locusts. Principal of these 
are domestic fowls, robins, black-birds, larks, bluebirds, swallows, 6nipe, plover, 
ducks, doves, grouse, magpies, crows, &c. 
Several quadrupeds rally for the destruction of locusts, including the common 
skunk, which for signal service in this cause is voted a benefactor in the locust region, 
and is petted, despite his odor. 
The Indians of the interior, usually so stolid, become quite excited at the approach 
of locusts, not with fear, but joy, as they proceed to harvest a winter's store of " crick- 
ets," in this respect resembling the Arab of the desert, who, at sight of the coming 
cloud, falls on his face, with loud cries of praise to Allah and the Prophet, for sending 
him food. 
PROTECTION AND DEFENSES. 
These are of five sorts : 1st. Encouragement of natural locust enemies ; 2d. De- 
struction of the eggs ; 3d. Destruction of the unfledged young ; 4th. Destruction of 
the flyers ; 5th. Warding off by frightful objects or sounds. The best means of de- 
stroying the eggs is by plowing them under, harrowing them out of their nests in 
autumn and exposing to winter weather and birds, irrigating and rotting them, or 
making the ground too hard for egress by rolling. 
When it is remembered that the young locust does not dig its way out of the ground — 
only wriggles out of the loose soil with its mantle still on — the feasibility of plowing, 
harrowing, and rolling is apparent, and I am surprised that not a farmer of Sierra 
Valley is reported as trying these remedies. Certain knolls known to be full of eggs 
could be thus treated, and the vast bulk of our local pest be destroyed in the egg. I 
say " local pest " advisedly. The (Edipoda atrox is not a true migratore, does not rise 
in vast swarms to a great height, and journey for days in a given direction ; hence its 
destruction may be compassed or completed by vigorous concert of action. 
And this is the comfort we may gather from all this investigation ; that this is not 
the hateful spretus of the Rocky Mountains, liable at any day to drop out of the sky 
in overwhelming myriads, but only a local and usually harmless species, that for some, 
perhaps evanescent, cause has multiplied to a destructive extent. The theory lately 
advanced in the Republican (which I fear may be credited to me, as the editor refers. 
