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Today in history 7-26

Started by remrogers, July 26, 2021, 11:18:34 AM

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remrogers

1931
July 26
Grasshoppers devastate Midwestern crops

On July 26, 1931, a swarm of grasshoppers descends on crops throughout the American heartland, devastating millions of acres. Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, already in the midst of a bad drought, suffered tremendously from this disaster.

Since the very beginning of agriculture, people have struggled to prevent insects from eating their crops. Locusts and grasshoppers, insect cousins, are among the most feared pests. A plague of these insects can occur when conditions cause their populations to suddenly explode. Usually this happens under drought or very dry conditions, since their egg pods are vulnerable to fungus in wet soil. When the soil is very dry, swarms can develop.

Professor Jeff Lockwood of Wyoming describes being in a swarm as follows: "They explode from beneath your feet. There’s sort of a rolling wave that forms out it front of you. They hit up against your body and cling against your clothes. It’s almost like being immersed in a gigantic living being."

The July 1931 swarm was said to be so thick that it blocked out the sun and one could shovel the grasshoppers with a scoop. Cornstalks were eaten to the ground and fields left completely bare. Since the early 1930s, swarms have not been seen in the United States. However, North Africa and parts of the Middle East continue to experience problems with insect swarms, which sometimes includes as many as 1 billion bugs.

pitw

I've seen them bastids so thick that when they started flying that I could not see the ground from my sprayer.  Sprayed 640 acres and never saw the ground, was spookier than most  anything I've ever seed.  Was a breeze from the West and at the truck/trailer they piled up like a snow bank over 3 foot deep.  That field absolutel stunk for over a week but it was the only one that more didn't fly into :confused:.  Only thing they are good for is our free range birds that gained weight on them during a bad year.  It was fun going for a walk in the hay crop with 30 young turks kinda/sorta following and watching their crops get huge 3/4 times a day.
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