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.

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    or river one after the other until they bridge it with their own bodies, and cross over in force to the other side, even when a mile or more in breadth. The army in the main thus persist in carrying out a general direction in regard to march, notwithstanding apparent minor differences in parts of the column.” 135. Every expedient has failed.—You will see from the •.character of the fight that if it were possible to stop the “ army,” it would have been done. But it was impossible. However, progress has been made in this, like everything else. Means do now exist which did not then exist, whereby such a march can be stopped. At the same time, it is astonishing how, among all the Latin races who have had •to deal with these insects, that they persist in using these same means that have been recorded over and over again as having utterly failed in checking the “march” in question. Trenches, ditches, etc., do not stop the voetgangers. No, not even with water in them. And yet, at the present day, you will find these means practised. Any moat of the kind serves to delay their progress, but only for a few minutes. Such -a system must fail; it is labour in vain. If the ditch or trench were filled in burying those that were in it, it would only be an infinitely •small number of the army that could thus be secured, and there are not labourers enough nor money enough to open another and another, and ■continue this process successfully, in order to exterminate the pest in this fashion. So, again, “beating tins,” kindling fires, etc., in the case of the flying band, are all comparatively useless and trifling means. It is well to be assured of all these characteristics of the insect if we are to battle successfully with it in this stage and checkmate it here. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE “ ARMY’’—DIRECTION OF MARCH, ETC. 136. Natural dangers not reckoned with.—It is important to note the direction in which the voetgangers invariably move. As we have seen, they move in a body, as if by a common instinct, in one .-general direction. What is that direction ? It varies in different countries. The flying locusts in the Argentine come from a northerly •direction, and the hoppers or creepers march towards the south; although it might be, so far as abundance of suitable food goes, to their manifest advantage to go in an opposite direction. In Egypt, and also in North America, the flying locusts came from a westerly direction to their temporary homes, and they pursued an easterly direction. So it is written, “ they came with a west wind and departed with an east wind.” The important thing to bear in mind is that they march in one direc- tion as a body, irrespective of all natural dangers, etc., that may be in -their way. Then the great point is that in certain countries the direction
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