Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1885 — The Seventeen-Year Locusts. [ARTICLE]

The Seventeen-Year Locusts.

Washington telegram: Prof. Riley says the seventeen-year locusts, whose visit he has predicted, are harmless to growing crops and do no injury except to the twigs of forest and fruit trees. Wherever young orchards have been planted on land which has been cleared during the last seventeen years the trees are liable to suffer somewhat, but it is probable kerosene spray will protect them. The ordinary locust, which is so desti active to growing crops, has jaw-s which cut, while the seventeen-year species. more properly called the cicada, has only a beak through which he sucks' his nourishment.