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.

    357/388 (page 333)
    of combat with the insect, although the Turks in Cyprus paid no heed to Mattei’s proclamation, and it lay in abeyance for over twenty years,, until the British took it up successfully in 1883 (through Engineer S. Brown), since which time it underlies in one way or another in principle the artificial mechanical combative means in vogue. 846. If the artificial propagation of nature’s remedy by the spread of fungi can be under our command, it will undoubtedly occupy a first or chief place, but the principle underlying the observation of Mattel is of the very greatest importance, looking at the combat from an artificial human point of view. It is at once seen that their capture is thus safe and easy, for when once taken they can neither crawl nor jump out. It is clear that if a few inches (three, or even two) of tin or any smooth-surfaced material were projected and fastened all along the margin of the ditch or trench, and if on both margins, an effectual trap would thus be made until it was completely full. None could escape.. If, then, it were found as cheap to make a large ditch, say a metre or yard wide by the same depth, and place a narrow strip of tin or zinc or corrugated iron along both margins, covering the upper or superior surface with earth, and allowing the under surface to project 3 in. from the margin on each side ; I say, if it were found as cheap to do- this as to erect an upright “ screen ” or barrier, this would be an excellent and efficacious plan undoubtedly. Suppose you had ioo- miles of such a trench, it would be the means of burying an immense number of the insects. If the one ditch were not enough, then another could be opened, and the earth of the new one cast above the dead and dying hoppers in the old one. And so on. I need not further enlarge upon this ; if found easy to work, and as economic as the “ screen ” to be afterwards described, it would certainly be efficacious- as a trap. Undoubtedly the “army” would inarch into it, or they could be driven into it. In regard to 11 driving” I shall deal with it presently. 847. (e) Pits—various forms of traps.—Pits as traps for the hoppers may assume various forms according to the ingenuity and capability of the person who employs it. We have to deal with walking visible insects, and the object is to entrap them into a pit. The plate (Fig. 43) shows several things connected with the combat- Clearly there are two fences or barriers visible converging at a point. Now let us suppose that the saltonas are marching from the direction we ourselves stand in when looking at the picture, they will then go against the fence, and if the fence be of corrugated iron they cannot get over it, but will walk towards the converging point. If, then, a zinc barrel or large tank be placed there, whether buried in the ground so that its margin is level with the surface by which the hoppers had nothing to do but walk in and perish by means of some poison (for