grasshopper season coming in

The original owners of PLanet Natural sold a thing called " Semaspore Bait," which was PERFECT!  It was flakes that attracted only grasshoppers and killed them - then (the best part) is live grasshoppers would eat on the dead ones, and then they would die.  We purchased this for years (decades).  THEN Planet Natural sold their business, and the new people do not carry it anymore (boohoo).  NoloBait is the next best thing, but this time of year you will not find any.  It is natural, organic, will not hurt humans or animals or any good bugs (which Diatomatus Earth does) and it is sooooo easy to use.  All we did was sprinkle the flakes around the outside areas of our gardens at the first signs of the monsters and viola - gone.
I suggest doing the best you can for this year THEN keep this in your head around Christmas time.  Best time to purchase for the new season.  Also suggest getting the biggest bag possible as it will last for a couple of years (doesn't take much, just make sure to spread it well).  Sorry I don't have any "right now" ideas other than attract bird or buy Guinea birds - they LOVE hoppers and are fast enough to catch them.

The problem I had with Nolo bait was that moisture spoils it somehow.  I was left trying to keep the bait in places that stayed dry

I cut one end out of tin cans, put the bait in, laid the cans on their sides…..  I started when I saw the first hatchlings…. 1/4 inch long little grasshoppers without wings.

I would have loved it if it had worked for me as it does for some.  It’s a perfect strategy after all.  The bait carries a fatal disease specific to grasshoppers.  They die, and being cannibalistic, the living grasshoppers eat the fatalities.  (This is a survival strategy utilized by other species as well.  Millions of eggs becoming a tiny fraction of that number of adults).

Grasshoppers are suppressed, and the only negative result I can think of is that grasshopper eaters are not fed.  Birds, coyotes and other opportunists, rodents, and who knows how many of those guys it would take to suppress the population in bumper years, and what would they be eating the rest of the time?

For now, Nolo or guineas is as good as it gets.

I just read a news story on the BBC about eating grasshoppers, a favorite food for many.

The part I want to repeat here is that they catch the grasshoppers at night, using bright light as an attractant.

Might be worth a try if you have the grasshoppers

The most elaborate system involved burning weeds to make smoke to confuse them, so they will fly into a piece of sheet metal and fall into a container below.  

It's important you know the species you're dealing with. https://culinarylore.com/food-science:are-grasshoppers-edible/#:~:text=Poisonous%20Grasshoppers%20are%20Brightly%20Colored,They%20tend%20to%20move%20slowly.

I'm linking to this article but I know about them being poisonous because I want to try them with a local variety.   Thankfully I did my research first and didn't make myself sick.

I have lost track of what I have or have not told y'all ...
It's hard to say who is doing what damage at this point.
Harlequin bugs are eating my brassicas, the woodchuck figured out how to get in the garden and is biting the heads off of plants, the hoppers are still hopping, the tomatoes are showing tomato worm damage but I haven't need any worms yet (will go out with a UV flashlight tonight and see if I can find them  https://permies.com/t/800/56757/permie#1307978 ) and something is biting the tops off my pole beans at 4+ feet off the ground....

Pics of etc damage that is bugs of some sort (not woodchuck or worm)

Damaged violets

Punctured sweet potatoes

Lacy ground cherries

Perforated kale

Although I DID find one culprit! One who is known to perforate kale, right? No? But she looks guilty!

Ah HA! The culprit!? She LOOKS guilty!

And beans bitten off at my eye level  

Bitten off beans

Wow Pearl!  This is a tough season in your garden, for sure.  Sorry there’s nothing I can do to help

Pearl Sutton wrote:

William Bronson wrote:Sounds like a job for poultry!

I know... I'm debating borrowing some birds, BUT I have no coop etc any more, AND I lost most of my birds to hawks, in this yard.  

I have heard that if you have crows you don't have raptors. Might be worth setting out corn, trying to attract some.

This year I have been besieged by what I think are Mormon crickets. They strip plants completely. We had a wet, cold spring and that has made the pests horrible. Between the crickets, flea beetles and red shoulder bugs, this year's garden has been terrible.

I have never had grasshoppers be as destructive as these crickets, but that was back in the suburbs.

Jan White wrote:Do they kill any big plants or just the smaller ones? I have enough grasshoppers that a swarm of them go hopping in every direction as I walk around, but they don't seem to eat big plants. I've just decided anything small enough at this point in the year to get destroyed doesn't have a place in my garden.

I wonder about this too. What does grasshopper damage look like? I must have more than 20 per square yard and they don't really seem to be doing any harm. What should I look for?

On the years that there are baby wild turkeys in our yard, it's a riot watching them run around hunting the grasshoppers. Also, one of my cats adores them. She's trapped indoor except for a ~90 sqft 'catio' but plenty of hoppers jump into it and she's always ready for them.

A few Mormon Crickets were on the move when I was out in the desert in SW Twin Falls County a couple of weeks ago. Not too bad yet this season. They travel in bands and some years they are so numerous that highways are slick in the places where they are crossing. The Highway Dept. puts out warning signs.

I saw a few dozen Mormon Crickets crossing the dirt road in one area. Here is a picture for reference.
There were more baby Horned Lizards out than Mormon Crickets. I turned around and went a different way, I didn't want to run over the lizards.

Steve thanks for the pics.  I was wondering what a Mormon cricket was.  And that baby lizard is adorable!

So it looks like we have Mormon crickets and maybe grasshoppers or other crickets. Many different sizes.

They have devastated many plants. They completely defoliate them.

Grasshoppers have defoliated my orchard. It looks like 4-7 apple trees will die. Won't know until next spring.  Very dry and hot here now.

Definitely a good year for the grasshoppers!  Not so good for farmers

I once had a grasshopper plague year.  People poo poo my use of plague to describe it…. But they stripped the bark and leaves off of a 4 year peach tree, ate the flesh off the years peaches.  The pits left hanging on the denuded branches.  They also ate all the bark off a mature lilac bush.

I had several years to see what kept the grasshopper population low enough to coexist.  That bait thing didn’t help, was expensive and a lot of work.  Some people have good luck with it, and before anyone can question me to discover what I did “wrong” since it worked so well for them, please,  accept the idea that I was as diligent and attentive as anyone could have been.

What did work for me was guinea fowl.  (Were guinea fowl?)

I just bought a new place.  The grasshoppers are present in multitudes.  Has had me thinking about the future.

Early next spring I will order keets.  I will raise them up and release them when nights are no longer cold enough to kill them.

If necessary I will repeat the process each year.

Good luck!

Pearl Sutton wrote:I have lost track of what I have or have not told y'all ...
It's hard to say who is doing what damage at this point.
Harlequin bugs are eating my brassicas, the woodchuck figured out how to get in the garden and is biting the heads off of plants, the hoppers are still hopping, the tomatoes are showing tomato worm damage but I haven't need any worms yet (will go out with a UV flashlight tonight and see if I can find them  https://permies.com/t/800/56757/permie#1307978 ) and something is biting the tops off my pole beans at 4+ feet off the ground....
Pics of etc damage that is bugs of some sort (not woodchuck or worm)

Some damages look familiar to me:
Lacy ground cherry from flea beetles
Holey sweet potato leaves from tortoise beetles

Violet might be eaten by some caterpillars coming out at night
My tomato also got attacked by blister beetles and army worms
Sunflowers and sunchokes got severed by sunflower Headclipping weevils