The Western Cricket. 
9 
Where it is obtainable, long, narrow strips of corrugated or other 
sheet iron could be used alone. 
DESTRUCTIVE MEASURES. 
While I was only able to make a few tests in a small way of 
any means of destroying the crickets, it seems to me that it is here 
that we shall find some of the most promising methods of keeping 
these destructive insects in check. First, and perhaps most promis¬ 
ing among these methods, I will mention the use of 
Coal Oil or Petroleum on Water. I find some who have used 
coal oil on water, report good success and others report failure. 
One party who used the oil at Hayden last year said, “We killed 
them all right when we used enough oil.” I am confident that 
wherever a vertical ditch bank or a fence upon one of the above 
plans can be used to tumble the crickets back into the water of a 
ditch that they are crossing, that they can be killed ift enormous 
quantities with the oil, as follows: 
Throw a dam across the ditch, arranged so as to allow the water 
to escape through an opening near the bottom of the dam, but not 
allowing it to run over the top. The water will back up and can 
be covered with a heavy film of oil that will not run off, and, as the 
crickets accumulate above the dam they could be raked out and 
shoveled into a pile. They would make an excellent fertilizer. 
Poisoning. I tested white arsenic, dissolved, and as a powder, 
and Paris green for the destruction of the crickets. I found that 
it was necessary to use the poisons freely in order to kill at all 
quickly. I found that the dissolved arsenic was most satisfactory 
in its results. I also found that the crickets are very fond of sugar 
and took the poisons more freely when sweetened. The poisons 
were put upon green vegetation, such as cabbage leaves and beet 
leaves, and upon fresh horse manure. It seems probable that 
poisoned baits of green food placed in the track of the crickets, es¬ 
pecially in the early morning, might be quite effectual in destroying 
them. I would use the poison in the proportion of about i pound 
to io gallons of water, and thoroughly moisten the food with it. 
Enough sugar to sweeten the bait a little will make it more accept¬ 
able. Poisoned sweetened water put anywhere in the way of the 
crickets might serve to kill them. 
Where the crickets are marching into a field of oats, potatoes 
or other cultivated crop, I believe an arsenical poison in the pro¬ 
portions mentioned above, sprayed upon the plants along the border 
of the field where the crickets first enter, would destroy a large pro¬ 
portion of them. The first that die will be eaten by their comrades, 
and so one dose may do double duty. It might be practical to 
poison the native food-plants where the young feed before taking 
on their marching habit. 
