 Today's Sunday School Lesson is on a very important and ancient subject. It's an old story, older than the Bible itself. Boys and girls, our lesson this morning is taken from the Old Testament, the prophet Joel. Joel is one of the minor prophets and there's just three short chapters in this book. This book tells us about grasshoppers. We want to study about grasshoppers this morning, how they plague the land of Israel. Hear this. Give ear all the inhabitants of the land. Tell your children of it and let your children tell their children. What the cutting locus left, the swarming locus has eaten. And what the swarming locus left, the hopping locus has eaten. And what the hopping locus left, the destroying locus has eaten. What is it, Joan? Teacher, what is a locus? A locus is the name ancient writers gave to the grasshopper. And this is how the Bible describes the infestation. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and without number. Its teeth are lion's teeth. The fields are laid waste to the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed. Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. Unto thee, O Lord, I cry, for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness and flame has burned all the trees of the field. Even the beast of the field cry to thee, because the rivers of waters are dried up. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but after them a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them. The you men of the soil, this is a familiar story. You know when the hoppers get out of hand, an outbreak can hit the day just like the plague described in the Bible. But not all farmers know that these plagues can be prevented. In American history, in the so-called grasshopper states, outbreaks have come frequently, with devastating impact on the nation's agricultural economy. When such a catastrophe occurs, everyone affected asks, where did all the hoppers come from? The trouble never just happens. Take the Midwest in the early 1930s. First one, then another species appeared and became active. As usual, the females reproduced one or two generations during that summer. Most of the eggs, from the old as well as the new females, remained in the ground all winter and hatched out the next spring. Every birth can be the beginning of an outbreak, because in an average summer, a grasshopper of one species lays approximately 200 eggs. If the adult hopper population were to remain the same, 198 eggs or hoppers had to die. But instead, 2, 6, 8, 10, or perhaps 50 survived. The grasshopper population then multiplied accordingly. 1934 was an extremely favorable growing year for grasshoppers. A pyramiding effect resulted, a growth of staggering dimensions. Swarming over the land, grasshoppers destroyed 25 to 75% of all crops in many areas, eating thousands of acres, ruining the alfalfa, consuming small grains, stripping the trees and shrubs in shelter belts, devouring the vegetative cover from off this land, laying it there. Thus, grasshoppers in the 30s set the stage for disaster. Without cover on the ground, life-giving topsoil was blown away. Ultimately, the nations struggled with the dust bowl. Today, we look back on a record of staggering losses. Grasshoppers have accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars in crop damage. Grasshopper damage is not limited to any single crop or area. Farmers the country over know the grasshopper as a migratory voracious feeder, not too fussy about its diet. During severe outbreaks, they devour entire fields of small grains. They like cotton, particularly the young plants, and corn, including the stalk, and hay crops, especially alfalfa. They also like sweet clover and grasses. After destroying the crops, they attack the trees. The plague follows a natural pattern set before biblical times. As this farmer is discovering, grasshoppers go for the most vulnerable parts of the plant. They bite off grain heads, flax and cotton bowls. Though the rest of the plant remains, sometimes the yield is not worth the harvest. In addition, grasshoppers have devastated range and pasture, making the insect responsible for tremendous dollar losses in feed and forced sales of unfattened animals. Ever since man began to grow his food, he has competed with grasshoppers. He has faced miles of these swarming insects feeding on his crops from four noon to sundown. Grasshoppers leave behind rivers that are too thick to drink and too thin to plow. And like compounded interest, as the farmers went broke, so did the merchants and American economy. To control an insect, you have to know it. Take a good look at one of your most costly pests. He is famous for remarkable leaping and flying power, for a ravenous appetite, for existing in hundreds of different species. But in the United States, only five species account for 90% of all cultivated crop damage. They are the migratory grasshopper, the differential grasshopper, the two-striped hopper, the red-legged hopper, the clear-winged hopper. To learn how to kill this ravenous insect, you must understand its life cycle and become familiar with its favorite egg-laying sites. Some lay eggs throughout grain and other crops. Some in idle land grown to weeds. Some in field margins, bordering row crops on which they feed. Others in sod. Some along roadsides, ditch and canal banks and right-of-ways. Before cold weather sets in, the female grasshopper, when ready to lay eggs, first probes the soil or sod for the right spot. Then she deposits her eggs an inch or two under the ground in tunnels, burrowed out for the egg pods. Because a single grasshopper lays from 5 to 15 pods, one hopper can average 200 to 400 eggs. Weather conditions determine how many baby hoppers will survive. Cool, wet weather with long periods of high humidity are unfavorable. Extreme drought conditions shrivel the eggs. Low temperatures, reduction of plant growth, and the young hoppers starve. But a cool and moist early spring, followed by a hot summer and apple food, then watch out! Baby hoppers called nymphs hatch about the time crops are planted. The image of its parent except for size and lack of wings but equally voracious. Thus crops are susceptible to attack during the 40 to 60 day growing season. Then with fully developed wings, final growth is achieved. How do you know when control is necessary? Egg survey teams, a federal state cooperative operation, spot checks various regions in the grasshopper states. Knowing where grasshoppers prefer to lay their eggs is highly important in making surveys. Screening the soil reveals the quantity of egg pods and helps to determine the extent of the danger. From late summer and fall surveys of adult hoppers and the egg pod count, maps are prepared. These maps which show the degree of expected grasshopper infestation are used by state, federal, and grasshopper control officials. These maps help them plot impending trouble and plan the campaign. In the spring, a nymph survey is made. This is another spot check to determine the extent of the threat. Trained specialists find out if an outbreak is threatened. Inside these nets is the basis for the grasshopper census. If the forecast is bad, the control men spread the word. Local communities should heed such warnings. Individual farmers should be on the lookout to advance hopper information in newspapers, farm magazines, on TV, and radio. When an infestation is expected, farmers' meetings help spread the word. Here the control people urge farmers to check the hotspots to size up the grasshopper situation, not in the meeting halls but on the farm. Early action means less damage and less work later. If the infestation on your farm appears to be larger than usual, check with your county agent for aid in establishing more accurately the degree of infestation. Based on the sampling of small grasshoppers, he should make definite plans for control. The federal government cooperates with the states in the west where grasshoppers frequently reach outbreak proportions and become regional rather than local problems. But a wait-and-see attitude coupled with hot, dry weather allows the hoppers to multiply and spread. This armada of destruction could have been prevented before it had a chance to devour the pasture. Today, control is easier and more certain than ever before. Every day gained in getting the job done means less grasshopper damage. The farmer who was on guard against this enemy will investigate the latest weapons created by modern science. His local supply store has them ready and waiting. The best weapons for fighting grasshoppers are insecticides. Some of these new poisons are so powerful that two ounces evenly distributed over an acre will kill almost all the grasshoppers present. Agricultural researchers are constantly developing new insecticides. The new chemicals may be used as dusts. But as sprays, they give higher initial kills and continue to kill over a longer period. When used as sprays, the farmer requires less insecticide per acre. Sprays kill by contact and through the stomach. In this way, a grasshopper who migrates to your sprayed field is killed by its first meal of poisoned food. You can kill grasshoppers more easily by timely spraying with the recommended chemicals, especially when hatching is generally completed but before the nymphs begin to migrate. By spraying the baby hoppers in the hatching grounds, you will greatly reduce the acreage that otherwise might have to be treated later. To find the grasshopper hatching grounds, look for their egg pods. Search your garden margins. Search your fence rows. Search your weed patches. Search your road sides. Search the idle lands bordering your cultivated fields. Later, go back and recheck these same spots for additional hatching. After you've heeded the warnings and found that your land needs control, pick the best tools for the job. Learn how by attending the demonstrations. Join your neighbors and come out to examine the new equipment. A grasshopper infestation is a community problem and when neighbors get together, they can lick anything, including bugs. Let the expert show you how. By controlling grasshoppers on your own land, you help yourself, your neighbors, and your community. Not only for the current crop season, but for years to come. Learn how to use the latest equipment or how to get the best out of your old machine. Controlling the grasshopper on your land is your responsibility, but your community is behind you, advising, encouraging, teaching. Your community makes sure that enough insecticide is available, that the sprayer market is adequate, that there are demonstrations, that commercial spray operators are in the area. Remember, the grasshoppers on your farm are your bugs to live with or to get rid of. It's up to you. Experts agree that spraying is the best method of grasshopper control. Use hand equipment for fence rows and weed patches. Use truck-mounted sprayers along road sides. Use power equipment for field margins. Use an airplane if you operate a large tract. From the air, you can kill more grasshoppers where they have solidly infested large cropped fields or extensive range area. Acres treated in a few hours from the air require days to cover by ground machines. Dusting is a less effective way of applying the poisons. So is baiting. But no matter what the method, the best way to control hoppers is to apply recommended insecticides to the plants they eat. Today, there is no need for the Gulf State farmers to complain about hoppers eating away their cotton. Today, there is no reason for the New England truck farmers to lose part of every crop to the insect. Today, there is a way to limit hopper damage for the sugar beet and bean growers in the west. Today, hoppers can be stopped by the wheat farmers up north. Wherever there are cultivated crops, the secret is to control the hoppers before they do damage. To prevent damage to a crop like cotton, spray the sources of infestation, like nearby pastures. Cut a severely infested field of alfalfa and spray to protect the next cutting. Spray uncut strips of alfalfa where hoppers have concentrated and save the truck farm. Don't forget the infested small grain fields when the small grains begin to mature and before the grasshoppers move into the corn or the fallow stubble field, which is really an undisturbed hatching area and protect the rest of your farm. Spray the borders of your cropland and orchards. Complete coverage of range areas is vital. Spray undisturbed range land. That's where the hoppers breed. Remember, every time you kill one hopper in the spring, you lessen by hundreds the swarms that now plague you later in the year. A complete cleanup in one year costs less than repeating halfway measures for several years. If all infestations of five or more grasshoppers to the square yard are reduced to one or less, they will remain harmless for several years. But remember, the grasshopper is an enemy, which if given a chance can become an agricultural catastrophe. If you wait, you will have to spread more insecticide. Wider coverage and heavier dosages cost more in time, money, and effort. If you wait, your ground sprayers may damage the plants your grasshoppers didn't. No matter how tough he looks, this insect can be controlled. When grasshoppers menace the crops on your farm, individual action with today's insecticides is sufficient. Small dosages of new poisons and new methods of application are the answer. Where they begin to move from one farm to another, complete protection can be obtained only by individuals cooperating with their neighbors, their communities, their states, and the federal government. America's agriculture can be cleansed of the grasshopper pest, provided all concerned apply the gift of science at the right time and in the right places.