"Well, they did poison some. There was another way. They would put a They would take a large, long tank and mount it in front of their tractor, and put a reflecting shield of galvanized metal back above it. And then fill this long tank with diesel fuel or kerosene, drive through the field. Well, this shiny metal would attract the grasshoppers, and the movement of the tractor, of course, would cause the grasshoppers to jump up. And they'd end up in the diesel fuel. And after making one or two rounds over the field, then they'd have to dig out the dead grasshoppers before they could make the next round. That wasn't unusual.
"And of course now days, they would poison it, probably fly with an airplane and poison those grasshoppers. There's a field south of Utica, about two miles south of Utica, that last fall they stripped a field. Grasshoppers! Last year! 2002. So, if we don't get some different weather than what we have, we may have a good grasshopper crop coming along this year."