GRASSHOPPER “ARMIES”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18366, 7 April 1934, Page 15

GRASSHOPPER “ARMIES”

SWARMS NEAR KAIKOHE DAMAGE DONE TO GARDENS As a result of the long spell of dry weather swanns« of grasshoppers are emerging from areas of dried-up swamp laud in North Auckland and attacking! gardens and plantations lying in their path, with devastating effect. At the Ngawha springs, near Kaikohe, a resident, who established a vegetable garden with great labor, had the mortification to discover one morning that grasshoppers in their thousands had come out of the swamp nearby and ruined his garden. During the Easter holidays tourists were surprised to see on many northern roads armies of moving grasshoppers, with their line of march marked in many places by trails of dead where motor cars had driven over the moving mass.

Caterpillars also have been causing great damage. A farmer in the Kaikohe district had six acres of com nearly ready for picking, eaten np by an army of caterpillars. The stems of the corn were all lhat the grubs left. Such incidents are most unusual in the north.