ABSTRACT
In settling the western prairies, pioneers faced many adverse conditions: disease, hostile Indians, isolation, droughts, floods, prairie fires, and grasshoppers. Historical accounts and current reports attest to the fact that grasshoppers infesting rangeland in the western states are a serious hazard facing ranchers whose livestock, principally cattle and sheep; require ample forage for efficient, growth and successful reproduction. Calculating the total damage of rangeland grasshoppers for the whole region affected and the average loss per acre provides information on the seriousness of the entire problem. Reasons for the difficulty are several; the principal causes being the mobility of grasshoppers, variability of rangeland, deviations of weather, and the effects of caging upon both range plants and grasshoppers. After the baiting of 1.5 million acres of infested Wyoming rangeland, a survey of adult grasshoppers indicated a residual infestation of 2.8 million acres. An important factor to consider in the economics of control is the duration of an outbreak of rangeland grasshoppers.
