Insects eat Christmas trees
NZPA-APBeardstown, Illinois The biggest Christmas tree grower in Illinois says that a plague of grasshoppers has eaten this year’s crop. Grasshoppers gobbled up 50,000 scotch and white pines during the summer on the 142-hectare tree farm along the banks of the Illinois River, said Kevin Massie.
“It is kind of hard to get in the jolly ho, ho spirit when you are down that many trees,” he said. About 4000 of the ruined trees would have been ready for cutting this holiday season, said Mr Massie. He said some of the others would repair themselves in time for future Christmases.
“They (grasshoppers) eat the needles, and if they get hungry enough, they go down and start to eat the bark,” Mr Massie said. The result is a spiny brown skeleton.
Mr Massie, president of the Illinois Christmas Tree Growers’ Association, has about 500,000 Christmas trees growing on his westcentral Illinois farm. The trees must grow for nine or 10 years before they reach the consumer-pre-ferred height of about two metres, he said.
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Press, 15 December 1984, Page 30
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176Insects eat Christmas trees Press, 15 December 1984, Page 30
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