Key Points:
• Historical perspective
• European/African Locusts
• American Locusts
• Grasshopper VS locust
• Development of controls

“ They have left my fig trees broken;
The fields are ruined;
Despair you farmers;
Like a blackness spread upon the mountains a
comes.
”
Joel, chapter 1

For your interest http://www.roundtree7.com/2012/04/alberts-swarm/

•
2002-12 – Locust Plagues
–
Afghanistan
–
Kazakhstan
–
China
– Chad
–
Australia
– Grasshopper problems in mid-western U.S.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gbDXumh4HxdqmV
QyWMmdt-z8k6mw?docId=CNG.a7f5868b3661b5beedfbba67acac7c9c.5b1
For your interest

For your interest
http://en.tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/Tajik-locusts-threaten-Kazakhstan-crops-2463/

West Wind
East Wind

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002219101
0001460
For your interest

Grasshopper Glacier located 70 miles southwest of
Billings, MT http://formontana.net/grasshopper.html
For your interest

Locust in Oregon???
{absolutely}
• For many thousands of years before there was a “ political ” Oregon.
•
Melanoplus spretus - the Rocky Mt. Locust
•
Now extinct !!
– Evidence of locust swarms found in Wyoming glacial deposits which are 840 ± 85 yrs B.P.
– Locust remains in layers measured in feet!!
For your interest

1874 Rocky Mt. Locust “ Plague ”
For your interest http://wyofile.com/2010/11/3507/

Another flick from 1975
But “ locusts ” are only a metaphor
For your interest

Locust Philately For your interest

Here she is: Schistocerca gregaria
The infamous Desert Locust

For your interest
Orthoptera Taxonomy or what
’ s the dif. Between a grasshopper and a locust
• Order
Orthoptera (straight wing)
– 30,000 species
– includes the grasshoppers, locusts, katydids & crickets
– family: Acrididae (most grasshoppers & locust)
• 8,000 species worldwide with only a FEW as pests
• A locust is a
MIGRATORY &
GREGARIOUS grasshopper.

Locust
•
Notorious creatures with a long history of human interactions
–
One of the putative biblical plagues
–
Biblical references:
• 10 for grasshoppers
• 24 for locusts
– Ergo, these insects were very familiar to ancient civilizations.
For your interest

Grasshoppers & Locust
• Univoltine
• Hemimetabolous
(incomplete metamorphosis)
– egg; nymph (normally 5 nymphal stages) - adult
• Over-winter in the egg stage
• Locusts are found on every continent (well, with the exception of Antarctica)
Melanoplus devastator - the devastating grasshopper

*Grasshopper to Locust Transition
Solitary
Lighter in color
Longer hind legs
Shorter wings grading to
Sedentary
Migratory
Darker in color
Shorter hind legs
Longer wings
Gregarious http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2009/0
9/19/cicadas-vs-periodic-cicadas-vsgrasshoppers-vs-locusts/

PNW Grasshopper/Locust Control
Philosophy (ODA et alia)
•
Control programs began in the 1930 ties
– sodium arsenite (a dry bait)
– sodium fluosilicate (as a wet bait)
– nicotine sulfate
• killed grasshoppers effictively as well as three applicators one day in the Ephrata area of
Washington in 1939
•
Post WWII into the early 1960 ties
– widespread use of CHs (dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane & heptachlor)

19 th Century American control

Grasshopper/Locust Control Philosophy (ODA et alia)
• Era of CH use
– standard rate of application was 1/2 oz. per acre mixed in 1 gal. of diesel oil
– residual buildup a big problem in environmentally sensitive areas such as the
Malheur Wildlife Refuge
• 33,000 acres treated with dieldrin in 1962 against the clear-wing grasshopper ( Camula pellucida )
For your interest

Grasshopper/Locust Control
Philosophy (ODA et alia)
• Mid-1960 ties
– A move away from chlorinated hydrocarbons to the “ hot ” organosphosphate materials.
• e.g., malathion
– The inclusion of the carbamate family of insecticides
• e.g. Sevin

Oregon Grasshopper Control History
1985
1986
1989
1990
1992
1993
Malheur 494,950 Malathion
Baker,
Malheur &
Union
Lake
966,810
12,800
Malathion
& Carbaryl
Malathion
Lake 11,230 Malathion
Harney 25,640 Malathion
Klamath 11,300 Malathion
For your interest

Oregon Grasshopper Control History
•
2008
–
1,130,000 acres considered infested at an economic level
–
Average infestation was 29 GH/sqy
– Treatments used a 5% Sevin bait & Dimilin in environmental sensitive areas (Malheur)
For your interest

Oregon Grasshopper Control History
- Conclusions
• Reliance on one method of control
–
CHEMICAL
• Control programs in northeast, south central and eastern Oregon
– regions of lowest human density
– agriculturally based regions

•
Western range lands
– 50 species of grasshoppers
–
Of which 9 cause 95% of the damage
•
Economic thresholds
–
8 to 40 hoppers per square yard
•
Chemicals most frequently used:
–
Malathion
– Penn-cap M
–
Sevin
•
RAAT

•
Reduce Agent/Area Treatment
•
One-half of the normal insecticide dosage on one-half of the acreage.

•
Bio-cides
–
Entomopathogenic agents
– Nosema locusta
•
A microsporidian that targets Orthoptera
–
Metarhizium anisopliae
• A fungus that targets Orthoptera

Key Points:
• Historical perspective
• European/African Locusts
• American Locusts
• Grasshopper VS locust
• Development of controls