Grasshoppers and Locusts

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Entomology quiz:

in the 18th and 19th centuries when Americans began pushing west, the upper mid-west (Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, etc.) was well known for its great clouds of Locusts that descended on the land and consumed everything in their path. And yet, in 1902, the Federal Government declared the Locust to be extinct. No more great clouds of Locusts. Lewis and Clark observed this phenomenon and wrote about it. What happened in the second half of the 19th century that would cause the locust to go extinct? The answer is actually fairly simple if you know a little bit about grasshoppers.

Wes H.

P.S. Locust infestations are still a problem in Africa and other parts of the world.

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Re: Youn's first attempt - 2017

Youn:

First, locusts are simply grasshoppers that have aggregated together into large numbers. There is no actual species designated as a "locust" in this context. The term "locust" is illustrative of a specific behavior.

Second, grasshoppers spend part of their life-cycle living in burrows underground.

Third, when you introduce thousands of land-hungry settlers onto virgin land, and introduce said virgin land to the newly invented moldboard plow, you have a disaster for the local grasshopper population. Break the life-cycle of the grasshopper, and you break the clouds of locusts. Thank you John Deere. (Inventor of the modern iron moldboard plow.)

In areas where there isn't any active cultivation of the land, locust clouds are still a problem. In most cases where locusts are a problem, this is land that is unsuitable for cultivation. We have a similar problem locally with a weed called "Yellow Star Thistle" (Centauria solstitialis). Yellow star is a real problem in uncultivated range land. But being an annual plant, yellow star is not a problem in cultivated land for the same reason mentioned above. I recently read that Yellow Star is becoming a serious problem in the range lands in central Asia as well.

Incidentally, many of these areas in the upper mid-west, particularly in the Dakotas were settled by Scandinavian immigrants.



I learned about locusts and grasshoppers in Entomology class in college.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

So "a plague of locusts" is redundant. It's actually a plague of grasshoppers. I never knew that. It makes you wonder where the grasshoppers came from in ancient Egypt (c.f. Moses), since the only arable land was the narrow strip of fertile flood basin to either side of the Nile. It seems like they would have been aggressively cultivating all of that. And everywhere else was (and is) horrid desert.

Bob

[The photo of the Yellow Star Thistles looks like a pair of evil Smurfs in full combat gear.]

 

[Alpine]

I need one of those iron moldboard plows....

pier

 

[Youn]

Thanks Wes.
I suppose the grasshopper is not the only victim of this type of agriculture…

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

Actually, during certain years, when the conditions are right, grasshoppers multiply at a frightening rate. Keeping the biblical part out of the equation, there could have been a year when the rainfall was good, and the grasshoppers could easily have gotten out of control. That fertile strip of land along the Nile river would have been tasty pickings for a few billion grasshoppers. Probably at least once every generation the ancient Egyptians saw major locust events. Even the Atacama desert blooms once in a while. The only time I have ever been to Death Valley was in a February, and it actually rained while I was there! A very rare phenomenon, and I was lucky enough to witness it. I understand the desert in California bloomed this year due to the unusually heavy rains.

Those Yellow Star Thistles are nasty little plants that can turn marginal land into totally useless land. No grazing animal wants to nibble on those nasty things. Interestingly, one of its closest relatives is the Bachelor Button aka: cornflower (Centaurea cyanus). Frequently cultivated in gardens. They aren't the armor plated thorny pain that their close relatives are. But equally hard to kill with herbicides.

John Deere invented the Iron Moldboard plow, if memory serves, in 1834, or was it 1833, I'm not sure. It was his answer to the plows of the day which were wholly inadequate to break the virgin sod of Illinois. This is about the same time as Bessemer invented the "Bessemer Process" allowing for mass production of steel. The first plows as well as most everything else made from Iron in that era didn't convert to steel for another twenty years or so. Steel, if anyone is interested, made a decisive difference first in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and later the war between the states (1861-1865). Anyway, John Deere became rich because of his invention, and of course the Deere Company is now a global entity with I don't know how many billions in sales.



Photo of innocent looking Cornflower. In the seed stage and as seedlings the cornflower and the yellow star thistle are so similar as to be indistinguishable from one another. The only herbicides that work effectively on yellow star thistle and its relatives are harsh expensive chemicals that can leave residues in the soil for up to 30 years. Non-selective herbicides like Glyphosate don't really work. That is why no one wants to spray for them. You are then committed to growing grassy plants on that land for years to come.

Wes H.

Ask me some time to tell the story of how the English became Tea drinkers. Before the 1850's England was famous for its Coffee Houses. You learn a lot of obscure things in Plant Pathology class.

 

[deluxestogie]

My son lives in a city named, "Bessemer." I never made the connection before, but indeed, the city's history website says it was named after the steel guy.

They don't have locusts in Bessemer.

Bob