Grasshopper Invasion

Unless they are stopped, they may cost farmers millions

They are like a scattered army--you can't shoot them all." So said Farmer Ivan Josserand of Stanton County in western Kansas last week, as he fought a losing battle against swarms of grasshoppers chewing up his alfalfa and corn fields. In Nebraska, Scotts Bluff County Agent Monte Hendricks counted up to 50 hoppers per sq. yd., five times the number usually considered to be disastrous. Said he: "On the fringes of some bean fields there is nothing left but stubs."

Throughout the Great Plains, hordes of grasshoppers were on the move last week, threatening millions of acres of crops and rangeland in eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. It was the worst infestation since 1958, when billions of the pests caused $60 million in losses to Colorado farmers alone. Agricultural experts were not yet able to estimate the current damage but reckoned that total losses would run into millions of dollars. Farmers reported that up to 20% of some crops had been destroyed. Said a Department of Agriculture spokesman: "The hoppers eat everything in sight. Already we're hearing those old stories about them chomping off pitchfork handles, leaving only the tines."

Why the sudden infestation? According to entomologists, last year's drought killed wasps, robber flies and other predators that regularly dine on grasshoppers and their eggs. Then a moderately moist winter kept the eggs that were laid last fall from drying out, and a mild spring provided plenty of nourishing vegetation. Thus a vast progeny of grasshoppers was born.

To fight the pests, Governor J. James Exon declared Nebraska a disaster area and made $500,000 in state funds available for spraying. The Colorado legislature, called into special session last week by Governor Richard D. Lamm, voted $2 million for emergency treatment of fields.

If conventional pesticides cannot stop the invasion, the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington will consider permitting the states to use the banned poison heptachlor. It is extremely effective against grasshoppers, but researchers suspect it of causing cancer in animals. By law, the EPA can approve use of heptachlor only after public hearings, a process that usually takes more than 30 days.

But entomologists warned that the grasshoppers will begin laying eggs within two weeks, raising the danger of a more serious infestation next year. Said Farmer Darrell Seufer of Prowers County, Colo.: "We're supposed to be smarter than the grasshoppers. If we get them now, they won't get ahead of us."

In central Maine, people were fighting a different kind of insect infestation. For years poultry farmers in the area encouraged the proliferation of lesser mealworm beetles in manure pits, mistakenly believing they would hasten the chemical breakdown of the wastes into fertilizer. The tiny black creatures have thrived on partly digested grain in the manure, and this year their numbers have suddenly got out of control. At night, they seek shelter in farmhouses, boring holes in the walls and hiding in bedding and curtains. The only way to combat them is with brooms and vacuum cleaners. Says Mrs. James Dow Jr. of Turner: "I vacuum piles of beetles every day and toss them into my wood stove."

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