The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    350/388 (page 326)
    (6) Trapping 838. The most successful plan. Of all the artificial means that can be used to check or exterminate the plague of locusts none deserves greater attention than those measures to be considered under this heading, for up to the present no other plan of human ingenuity has been so successful. 839. The locust’s cunning must be met with superior guile. —We have seen that the locust, especially in its hopper state, is instinctively possessed of some cunning, and is very obstinate and not easily thwarted or turned aside from its purpose; that it pursues its course irrespective of ordinary obstructions that may be placed in its way; that it will run up a wall 30 or more feet high, and it will cross rivers. This is best evidenced or seen when the “army” is on the march. No other proof except what they manifest when on the march is required to show us that they are possessed of such indomitable qualities. If driven, they know how to be coaxed or refuse to be driven, as evidenced from p. . Therefore to give battle to them by laying a “trap” or “snare,” or to succeed in diverting their march by strategy, or so deceive them, is one of the means most advisable in this stage of the plague that can be open to us. As a matter of course this “trapping” has been used in all countries for centuries in one form or another. To’ do it anything like justice I must attempt to classify the modes or divide up the subject. I shall do so under the following heads :— (a) Ditches or trenches, with simple or under-sloping sides. (h) ,, with water. (c) ,, with water and coal-tar or coal-oil. (d) ,, with overlapping flap of tin. (e) Pits—various forms. (/) Laying down prepared grasses, pastures, or other substances to entice them to partake and then destroy them. (g) Barriers—various. (t) Fences made from branches or hedges. (2) Fences made of wood, simple or specially prepared. (3) Fences made of corrugated iron, zinc, or tin. (h) The “screen and trap,” or “Cypriote,” system. 840. (a) Ditches or trenches.—As already stated, this means as saltonasin their fourth and fifth stages can be caught W driving into trenches for, not to exceed, seven paper dollars per ton (i.e. about 12s.), and with the Carcaraiia machine one and a half dollars per thousand kilos (i.e. about 2s. 6d. per ton). Ot course these figures represent cases where everything was done in accordance w ith the insect’s habits, and where the work progressed smoothly under proper instructions and supervision. The insects were also present in veiy large numbers, but were not more numerous than is often the case.”