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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
and sorghum, and at one season or another these crops are all subject 
to attack. Wheat is often attacked in the fall, the hoppers coming in 
from the edges and roadsides, and devastating a strip of the young 
wheat from two to four rods wide. In cases of bad outbreaks, such as 
the one in the fall of 1918, entire fields are devastated by the lesser 
migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus atlanis. In the summer oats*, 
barley, alfalfa and corn are frequently damaged by the hoppers con¬ 
centrating soon after leaving the ripened wheat. Sorghum, except 
when very small, is not readily attacked. 
In the fall of 1918, thousands of acres of fall sown wheat were dev¬ 
astated by the grasshoppers and millions of eggs were deposited in the 
favorite places, especially in wheat planted on fallow land and in corn 
land. Many miles of roadside and fence-rows were burned and disked, 
destroying myriads of eggs, and had all the farmers practiced this 
method of control there probably would have been no serious infesta¬ 
tion in 1919. The several miles of disked roadsides and fence-rows 
amounted to a small percentage compared to the thousands of miles 
not disked. Early in May the grasshopper eggs began to hatch, and 
by June 1 the roadsides and fence-rows were literally swarming with 
young hoppers. A general warning was sent out calling attention to 
the seriousness of the situation, and a few farmers who realized the 
danger put out the poisoned bran mash. Three counties even organ¬ 
ized for concerted action, but still the farmers went about the work 
with an indifferent attitude, believing the hoppers would do no damage 
to the wheat or other crops. 
In early June farmers were surprised to find so many hoppers scat¬ 
tered over the wheat fields, instead of along the edges only as in pre¬ 
vious years. Investigation soon showed that the fields in which the 
hoppers were so plentiful were either fallowed or fields following corn. 
Since these fields were in good condition of tilth they were not even so 
much as disked or harrowed before planting, and thus the hoppers 
found a hard surface in which to deposit their eggs. It was in these 
fields that they were found in early June and not in those which had 
been recently cultivated before seeding. It was also these fields that 
later suffered devastation. Although the grasshoppers were in the 
wheat, oats, and barley in much larger numbers than the farmers 
expected, yet they had always had grasshoppers in these crops and had 
managed to harvest a crop. This year, however, the hoppers won out. 
The hot days in late June following a wet period ripened the wheat 
very rapidly. The hoppers had eaten most of the leaves and those left 
dried quickly in the hot sun. The grasshoppers in search of food 
simply crawled up the stalks where they found a bit of green just below 
the head. Here they ate an elongated notch into the stem. Right at 
