Talk:Rocky Mountain locust

Specimen Found?

If no specimens were preserved, how can modern-day scientists be sure the remains found in a glacier are truly those of Rocky Mt. locusts and not some other species? It's been theorized that Rocky Mt. locusts were just high concentrations of other locusts species who lost their ability to form massive swarms once the plow and tractor destroyed much of their natural breeding ground. 98.221.124.80 (talk) 05:02, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Where exactly did you read that no specimens exist? The article clearly does not make that claim. There are specimens in museums and parts of the DNA sequence from those can be compared with the DNA extracted from a fragment found on a glacier or even with any other living specimens claimed to be of the same species to ascertain identity. Shyamal (talk) 14:01, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Infectious disease

Isn't it possible that this social insect was driven to extinction through the introduction of an infectious disease from the Eastern Hemisphere to which it had no immunity? Bigturtle 21:38, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Not likely since most diseases brought over from the Old World mainly afflicted mammals. -134.50.14.44 (talk) 17:03, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Cleanup and proper reference needed

Moved the following from the article:

Killing all just by plowing unlikely and more likely is that a new farmers plant could kill all not growing before in USA and likely still not in africa like beetroot, cowberry or tulip. Plants can kill insects normally. Principally grasshoppers could fly also from africa to europe where they are no problem since long time maybe also because a plant killed them in europe. Killing can be caused also if they can`t swarm out if population to dense. Normally they touch on legs if dense causing the female to produce a chemical in foam arround eggs that changes them so they can fly in next generation. If a plant is the reason and found also good chance to kill them.(Reference not new theory with plant as reason TV report on Rocky Mountain Grasshopper Research shown in german TV - better Grasshopper used for article because locust just special metamorphose name-please add better reference or delte whats inside braces).

If someone wants to clean up the writing and more importantly provide a valid reference please do. Vague "TV report ... shown in german TV" , is not a valid reference. What specific program and based on what specific scientific research article? Vsmith (talk) 21:28, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Albert's swarm numbers

Its 12.5 billion here, and 3.5 billion in that article. Are these both genuine estimates, and should both be on both pages for consistency?. Vicarage (talk) 06:15, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Clarification needed

Hello from the Japanese Wikipedia. We (Japanese contributors) thoroughly investigated additional references in order to expand this mysterious topic ja: ロッキートビバッタ. However, several issues remain... I inserted some clarification notification templates, so please provide reliable sources or remove unreliable sentences - See my recent edit on the English article here. Thank you in advance for your help. --ProfessorPine (talk) 12:02, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

Photo

The main picture for this page is File:Minnesota locusts.jpg. However, the description for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minnesota_locusts.jpg specifically states that the grasshoppers in question aren't even in the same genus as the Rocky Mountain locust. So... 147.226.193.238 (talk) 01:50, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

That was recently added by an IP[1], so can't say if it's true. Probably original research, which would have to be reverted, as we can't verify it. FunkMonk (talk) 07:04, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

I showed the photo to a grasshopper expert and here is their reply: "Those are definitely not Melanoplus spretus. They are definitely in Oedipodinae: Hippiscini - and from what I can see, I would agree with Pardalophora sp. Hard to tell which species without looking at the hind wings or having more precise locality info." The original source just says "Minnesota locusts", so it seems that the identification of the photo as Melanoplus spretus was also original research. Nosferattus (talk) 20:50, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Extinctiom

Plowing, harrowing and flooding can kill much locust eggs where done but never all so the theory that the extinction was by new plants brought <1900 into USA is more likely special because plant poisons like "Meliantriol" from neem tree already known and used for stopping of locust spreading. Farmers are using special plants between food plants in whole world as protection against unwanted insects. The neem tree has alone 3 insecticides Azadirachtin, Salannin and Meliantriol; Nimbin and Nimbidin against viruses but also other plants are possible maybe just food plants like beetroot with poison oxal acid and alfalfa also known already for slowing locust spreading. Research for more plants killing or slowing locust spreading historical, by mapping of locust and plants spreading and also private experimental worldwide recommended. See also in german Wikipedia under Fighting against locust and Neem tree. 109.42.243.100 (talk) 23:15, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

New England range clarifications +potential corrections

A bit confused - the extinct section mentions R.M. locusts "...caused farm damage in Maine from 1743 to 1756 and Vermont in 1797–1798. The source linked doesn't mention M. spretus as the culprit behind those Maine/Vermont farm damage - since M. spretus seemed to only inhabit the Rocky Mountains (and later, Great Plains regions) should we remove/edit that sentence?

Cathartornis (talk) 14:11, 25 February 2022 (UTC)