Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1911 — PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS [ARTICLE]

PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

Ten Eastern States to Be Visited This Year. Seventeen-Year Variety Shows Indisputable Signs of Appearing in New Jersey and Other Nearby Commonwealths—Habits of Insect. Oceon City, N. J. —According to State Entomologist John B. Smith, New Jersey and nine other states will experience a plague of locusts this year. The state entomologist has a corps of workers, studying methods to ward off the threatened plague, among whom Is Mrs. E. S. Starr, of this place, who, under his direction, is observing the underground habits of the insect. Mrs. Starr has made a statement on the result of observations. She says: “There are 15 species of the cleada septendecum. or 17-year locusts, in the state bureau of entomology. This makes the study of the insect almost With each appearing of the insect something is added to give the entomologist a new problem to work out. In Cape May county the insect gave indisputable evidence of its presence months in advance of its regulation date for appearing, in April, when its seventeen years’ sleep underground will end. “Last summer a breaking out on the surface of the earth was noticed. It resembled circular spots about four inches in diameter. The soil in these spots was different in color from that nearby. The layers of the mounds were even and appeared to have been blown from a central cavity, such as the ashes from a volcano. There was no central opening visible, but inves-

tigation showed that it had been covered with sand. There was no cbanga in these mounds until after a rain, when the central portion seemed to rise. Later galleries in the mounds were discovered. Some of these extended more than three feet beneath the surface of the earth: It was in these that the locusts were sleeping. “The range of the outbreak, so far as has been discovered, extends along both sides of the West Jersey and SeaBhore railroad ffom Mt. Pleasant to near Ocean City, and over uncultivated ground for a mile to the northwest. There are mounds to be seen in the woodland but they are different in formation from those in the open country. “With the first indications of an eruption word was sent to Dr. L. O. Howard of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, and to Doctor Smith of the New Jersey bureau. Both pronounced it the work of the 17-year locust, but without precedent, it then being a year in advance of the time scheduled for the insects to appear. Doctor Smith sent an assistant to make an investigation. He reported that the mounds were the work of the cicada septendecum, but that it was of an unusual character. A careful observation of the appearing of the locusts is to be made in Cape May county, where, it i 3 believed, they will be more numerous. “Brood XII. of the cicada septendecum is due to appear in ten states next spring, the territory ranging from Saratoga county, New York, to western Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, and ending in the north central portion of North Carolina. In New Jersey the locusts underline the state. The last appearance of the locusts was in

1894, when in Cumberland and Capo May counties the discarded shells of the insects covered the ground. Trees and lumber today bear traces of that* visit. * “Doctor Smith has sent out a warning against '{he pruning and setting out of orchards until the locusts disappear.”