On the 11th of September 1866 they were holding a Baptist Association at A.D. Simmons’ home. Some of the women stepped out of the house and ran back in saying they thought the end of the world was coming. They thought it was snowing in hot weather because the sun was dimmed, but it was the first arrival of the grasshopper pest. They soon alighted and began to devour all green vegetation. They not only destroyed all crops but also deposited their eggs which were layed in a thimble like nest sealed over the top.
The eggs hatched the following spring, and when first hatched, they were white as a barley grain with black eyes, and it took six weeks for their wings to develop. During this time, they hopped promiscuously around and ate everything in sight that was green. After they developed their wings, they would soar in the air until they reached the second current of air then they would fly in a northeasterly direction.
In the fall of 1874, Overton was drilling wheat, he left a good woolen coat on the ground and when he picked it up at night to go home, found it eaten full of holes and ruined by the grasshoppers.
In 1881 there was another scourge of the red-legs, but not so bad as before and this ended the grasshopper scourge in Atchison county, Kansas.