Shawnn Taylor

Sorry to hear about what you are experiencing.  

The suggestions posted for grasshoppers are all good, depending on the amount of grasshoppers in your garden.
Try as many as is cost/time effective.

Spring of 2020 we experienced a 'plague' of locusts emerging from the rangeland/pasture/fields behind our home.  
Wet winter and warm spring weather. we were informed that this happens every 12-15 years according to the neighbors who have lived in this area over 30 years.

Unfortunately nothing we tried and was recommended by entomologists worked.  there were too many locusts covering every part of the garden/yard/plants and house.

-Diatomaceous earth etc. to Nolo and finally wheat bran inoculated with Nosema locustae, which is a disease organism specific to grasshoppers and their kin.
once they become locusts they feast on each other as well as all the plants in the garden/yard.  
(wide low jars/containers of soapy water does attract them easy to dispose of depending on how many you use)

The pool/pool pump was ruined by the sheer volume of locust bodies. as they dove into the pool, every 24 hours we would clear out the filter and gather a large bushel bucket filled with dead locusts, we spread them out in the garden/yard.  nothing wasted.
A year later we had/still have a beautiful pond.  

Our garden/yard looked like it had been through a 'fire' every plant/vegetable/herbs/flowers and shorter fruit trees were stripped/eaten.
A year later the garden came back to life, we did need to replace some fruit trees and plants that did not survive.
The dead locusts provided nutrition to the soil and plants.

I can't imagine having a couple or more acres of crops ruined by locusts.
(I was in contact with several people throughout the country who were experiencing hordes of locusts on their farmlands that spring/summer)

In the end a good old fly swatter and an hour of swatting them on the house every evening was good therapy for my frustration.

here is part of the area beyond the neighborhood for visualize context.
It doesn't take into account the whole range land.

Deb Fearon wrote:I'm on the high prairie of New Mexico and I'm having a very similar experience to yours. It's heartbreaking to watch all of my trees, roses and shrubs get defoliated. I'll admit to avoiding my yard altogether,hiding in the house and having episodes of depression. I've applied over 35 pounds of nolobait with little results.
I had an episode of grasshoppers about 6 years back where I lost all of the tree leaves and perennials . After the rains and the next Spring some of the plants came back. I call them my survivors and honored their strength and resilience. I was inspired to build indoor growing rooms and fashioned screened in spaces for the smaller trees. This year I'm very grateful for my indoor growing rooms as I still have hope for food production and a place to gaze upon flowers. I've fashioned sitting areas, though cramped, I enjoy my coffee out there and sing little songs to the plants that are growing this year.
I'm afraid I haven't any other solutions to the grasshopper problem. I can only offer emotion support and the vision that this maybe a time of stripping away of everything. Mother nature has great wisdom and though she's terribly out of balance, she is working her magic to bring us back to a new state of creating. I've had to settle great sadness within myself and I'm moving into resolve and discovering my own resilience. these are crazy times to be sure and the lessons are fast and furious.
I held a small ceremony for all the lost plant lives and the leaves of the stronger plants. It's helped emotionally and I trust Mother Nature will present hope and new beginnings.
If I wasn't so squeamish, I'd make a nice organic grasshopper flour, I hear it's very high in protein.

Deb,
I know how you feel.  AS for collecting the grasshoppers, sounds easy, it is not.  even with millions of them.  they are quick.
At the end of the second week, I mourned and grieved the garden/yard and all the plants.  It was overwhelming.  Scary too because at that time they were swarming the house, couldn't see out my windows or go in/outside of the house.
As the Rancher shared they are fierce this year, worst he has ever seen them.
My friends suggested a ceremony, for the earth- out of balance, the plants and the insects (grasshoppers).
We have a mini nursery of plants that we moved into our enclosed screened area.  
I will post what we have used, what worked and what the plans are for the future.
Please stay in touch.
Debra
ps the leading USDA entomologist is in New Mexico right now, on a research trip.


At this point I do not want to see another grasshopper for a long time.  Let alone eat them now, they smell disgusting.  After watching them cannibalize each other, no thank you.
(yes, I have had grasshopper taco's before)
from reports we have read eating too many locusts can make the chickens and ducks inedible.
I will attempt to post photos of the fields and foothills behind the neighborhood.

East Africa, India, Middle East, Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. AND areas of New Mexico, So. California.
The articles keep coming reporting of new Locust and grasshoppers swarms.

Hope you get some answers! That looks terrible. Has the weather been different this year in any way?  
Gilbert Fritz

It was extremely rainy in 2019 winter/spring.   This winter/spring was warmer and less rain.  Perfect storm for the grasshoppers hatching.

My chickens are thinking, "How far away is that?  You think we could hitch a ride over there?"
Marco Banks

Everyone is welcome to come and get some for their chickens/ducks/?.  Plus if you fish!  Or want to eat them.  There is plenty for everyone.
The fields/foothills/range land is a couple of hundred acres filled with protein.  It is truly overwhelming according to the Entomologists.


I am sorry to see your bad luck. I agree with Marco and would look to harvest that excess of protein and frass with birds. I doubt you could really do anything about the swarm itself and protecting your garden seems a lost cause. You should have some great bird song and fertile soil soon though!
Ben Zumeta

We have been collecting a bushel barrel full of dead grasshoppers every 24 hours from the pool filter.  We had other water and soap traps all over the yard, at this point, we don't know what the point is.  I will see about posting those photos.
Yes, we are keeping them to use in the compost.  They don't seem to mind cannibalizing each other, it only attracts more.*
I guess with the frass if it is only a couple of grasshoppers not in social swarming mode it would repel them.*
The birds and the lizards are full up on grasshoppers they just avoid them at this point.  
World out of balance.

Since May 15th 2020 we have been under siege with millions of grasshoppers emerging from the fields/foothills beyond our neighborhood.  
We have been looking for HELP from as many agencies as we could contact with no luck.
Two entomologists came out to look at what was taking place.

This is on 1/2 an acre property.  The grasshoppers have eaten the garden, the flowers, the herbs, the fruit and almonds from the trees.
We wanted to use only non toxic remedies with NO success.

We used flour, corn meal, Neem oil with Tea Tree oil and Diatomaceous earth food grade, over 70 lbs.
By the time we saw them in the garden/yard, it was too late.  
One day they were not there and the next they were all over everything.
I will attempt to attach photos.

It was like walking on a live carpet of grasshoppers.  They would rain on us from the trees and jump up from the ground.
At one point we could not see out our windows.  Like a horror show.  The power of nature!

We contacted the Regional Vector Control they would not/could not help.
City, County and State offices, nothing.  The city told us in the neighborhood, that we are private homeowners and they could do nothing to help us.
Not taking into account they are coming from the field beyond our homes.  
They continue in swarms out in the field/foothills where the cattle and horses are grazing and have grazed for over 50 years.
Now they are traveling down the hill to other neighborhoods.

If anyone in this group has encountered this problem what did you do?  Whom did you contact?
We can't stop them from coming into the yards/neighborhood.  
Now they are mature and will be laying eggs which begins another cycle.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Hi,
I am growing stinging nettles (intentionally).  Picked up some seeds last year with miner's lettuce.  
They do grow up in the higher elevation of the San Bernardino Mtns.  Anyone else from the Inland Empire area of Southern California?
Today I harvested the first of the nettle leaves for tea.  

Thanks for all the info on weaving with nettles.