Grasshoppers

Does anyone know something I don't.  Other than 50 guineas on 2 acres what do we do about the plague of locusts?  Several years ago there was a product called NoloBait that was a nosema bacteria innoculated bait that reliably made them sick and die.  It's not been available since Covid.  Currently I keep a bucket of water, catch the ones that seem sluggish and drown them.  Maybe I can use the water to wage a little bio warfare.  Any other ideas?

Don't know the solution, but I can understand the worry. They are voracious.

I just released all of our layer hens and meat birds into the yard and garden.

They cannot possibly do more damage than the hoppers at this point. I was having some luck with a net when they were young but now they are larger and wiser and hop out just as fast.

Ouch - that's a tough call. Sad you lost your garden.

I'm going to try row covers next year.  I wonder if they'll just chew right through it.  If we use plastic window screening instead of aluminum they do just that.

When I lived in California, there would be an invasion of them every several years.  Quite quickly in an outbreak year I would give up on the veggie garden as a lost cause early on, and focus on saving the valuable perennials and young trees.  Once trees got to a certain height they didn't seem to get messed with, but small ones I would carefully bag with fine netting until their numbers diminished.  Just to make use of the opportunity I also used the same netting to make a big sweeping net on a handle and catch them by the handful for some young chickens I was raising that year.   If they are bad every year, I would have considered setting up a high tunnel or other kind of framework with screen,  and garden inside of that.   This could also get plastic put on it for season extension....