The Role of Grasshopper Bounties during Nineteenth Century North American Grasshopper Plagues

The Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) or grasshopper was a considerable threat to agriculture production in the United States with several episodic plagues, and grasshopper bounties became one tool to address the damaging swarms. Because bounties relied on participants to help achieve population outcomes, it is however largely unknown how participants used the bounty system. This paper examines three hundred and twenty-five historical grasshopper bounty certificates from Minnesota and Utah, and demonstrates found that most participants submitted grasshoppers once, and the majority of grasshoppers were brought in for bounty when participants would submit twice, although fewer grasshoppers were submitted with more than three bounty submissions. Landscape ecology principles, as well as landscape features and structure, can help identify areas that might be more helpful in detecting more dense grasshopper population areas and areas where control mechanisms may be more effective. Evaluating how often participants historically used the bounty is important, should bounties be considered to help control grasshopper populations during future outbreaks.