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Pest, Plagues & Politics Lecture 18

Pest, Plagues & Politics Lecture 18. Locust Plagues. Key Points: Locust Plagues. 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;

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Pest, Plagues & Politics Lecture 18

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  1. Pest, Plagues & PoliticsLecture 18 Locust Plagues

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

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

  4. http://www.roundtree7.com/2012/04/alberts-swarm/

  5. A thing of the past?? • 2002-12 – Locust Plagues • Afghanistan • Kazakhstan • China • Chad • Australia • Grasshopper problems in mid-western U.S. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gbDXumh4HxdqmVQyWMmdt-z8k6mw?docId=CNG.a7f5868b3661b5beedfbba67acac7c9c.5b1

  6. A thing of the past?? http://en.tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/Tajik-locusts-threaten-Kazakhstan-crops-2463/

  7. East Wind West Wind

  8. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022191010001460http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022191010001460

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

  10. 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!!

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

  12. Another flick from 1975 But “locusts” are only a metaphor

  13. Locust Philately

  14. Here she is: Schistocerca gregaria The infamous Desert Locust

  15. Orthoptera Taxonomyor 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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

  18. *Grasshopper to Locust Transition http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/cicadas-vs-periodic-cicadas-vs-grasshoppers-vs-locusts/

  19. PNW Grasshopper/Locust Control Philosophy (ODA et alia) • Control programs began in the 1930ties • 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 1960ties • widespread use of CHs (dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane & heptachlor)

  20. 19th Century American control

  21. 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 (Camulapellucida)

  22. Grasshopper/Locust Control Philosophy (ODA et alia) • Mid-1960ties • 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

  23. Oregon Grasshopper Control History

  24. 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)

  25. 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

  26. Wiser use of insecticides • 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

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

  28. Newer control methods • Bio-cides • Entomopathogenic agents • Nosemalocusta • A microsporidian that targets Orthoptera • Metarhiziumanisopliae • A fungus that targets Orthoptera

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

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