![]() Lockwood's book, Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier(affiliate) was an incredible resource. Rocky Mountain locusts ( Melanoplus spretus) species darkened the skies of the midwest between 18 and ate their body weight in food daily. And though grasshoppers eat plants, they won't eat every crop in a region. ![]() Grasshoppers don't swarm by the millions. ![]() When crowded, locusts develop long wings and they migrate in big swarms and cause incredible damage. Grasshoppers and locusts are quite similar. Now extinct, the pests were actually the Rocky Mountain locust. Spoiler alert: Laura Ingalls Wilder's books are historical fiction, but her account of the locust plague was accurate. ![]() (And some of that research will be part of The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide coming out in 2020.) As a child I wondered if she exaggerated the account. Have you given much thought to those grasshoppers which tormented the Ingalls family and other pioneers? Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of the despised insects in her Little House books. ![]()
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