Locusts.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1887, 9 August 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Locusts.

•The districts of Matheran and Mahableshwar, in the Bombay Presidency according to the Colonies and diet, have been suffering from an invasion ©f locusts, huge Bwarm3 of which' have settled on the trees, which appear to be covered with red foliage and clusters of red flowers during the occupation, but when abandoned are nothing but bundles of bare twigs. While the locusts are on the wing, it is difficult to make any impression on them, although an Italian landowner, resident in Cyprus, has destroyed vast numbers by placing in their path, Boon after they are hatched and still unprovided with wings, pits so prepared that, after tumbling in, it was impossible for them to get out. This, however, is only feasible during the wingless stage, when the young locusts march across the country in great columns, more than a mile in breadth. But the most radical treatment is that of destroying the eggs, which, fortunately, are deposited, not singly, but in masses in one place, generally on an unoultivated^hillside. The female inserts the eggs by means of a Bwordjike appendage, and sheds a glutinous matter for, their protection ; and, as traces of this may be seen glistening on the surface of the soil], it affords an easy clue for -the Ve*r3ber % disoover the whereabouts. In /Cj^iftslcewardabave haeri offered' "and ' es

imposed with a view . to stimulating the peasantry to destroy the egga, 62 tons of which were brought in during 1868, representing 50,000,000,000 locusts, the result being that the pest disappeared for several years. Enormous as is the destruction caused by the locust, there is one advantage about it, viz., that itjte edible— in Arabia men and horses using it regularly as an article of diet. By Gome of the natives they are eaten with oil after being stripped of their legs and wings, but Lady Anne Blunt, in her travels, was in the habit of boiling them and dipping them in salt. The flavor is desoribdd ' as savoring of a vegetable, not unlike the taste of green -wheat.