Turkeys: They're good for more than just Thanksgiving dinner.

When grasshoppers were plaguing Oregon farmers in the 1920s and '30s, one southern county in the state was at its wits' end. Klamath County had already spent thousands on insecticides hoping to rid the area of the pests, according to news reports of the time, before switching to a unique solution: flocks of turkeys.

A 1937 article in The Bend Bulletin said the fowl could gobble around 1,000 grasshoppers per day, making a dent in insect control where poisons had failed.

And it suited the turkeys just fine: According to the National Wild Turkey Foundation, grasshoppers are a high-protein snack for the birds, especially for youngsters that need to bulk up quickly.

Using turkeys as grasshopper control isn't a relic of the

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