HELP! Grasshoppers are taking a toll on my garden and if I don't get rid of them quick, they'll devour everything. What can I do?

-- Lois Kimberlin (loiskimb@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001

Answers

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

Insecticides or introduction of spiders or mantis' into the garden environment if you are pursueing a total organic yield.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 08, 2001.

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

Do you have access to ducks or ducklings? I saw on TV a few weeks ago that Japan (I think) was releasing hundreds of ducklings to control the locusts. If I'm remembering correctly, it was stated that 1 duckling could eat about 100 locust a day. Just be careful if your plants are very small as they may step on them or uproot them digging around in the dirt.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), July 08, 2001.

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

I haven't tried it but my friend told me to make a mixture of molasses, finely ground bran and an insecticide into a wet paste. Place around the garden in containers with short sides, such as cut down milk cartons or jar lids - something you will be able to throw away. This will draw the hoppers away from your vegetables and also kill them as they eat the mixture. Our hoppers aren't bad this year but I will try it in the future if need be. Please post what you try and let us know what works. Thanks and good luck !!

-- cindy (jandcpalmer@sierratel.com), July 08, 2001.

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

Guineas have been the answer to our grasshopper, tick, and assorted bug problems. They are voracious eaters of all the above. - Liz Rhein

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), July 08, 2001.

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

"Nolo" or "Killabug" by Hi Yield (Fertilome product).

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), July 08, 2001.

Response to Get rid of Grasshoppers?

Look in archives under pests. My personal opinion, some years are bad and we don't have a garden those years. DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), July 09, 2001.

There's always the possiblility that the locusts could be considered another "harvest". I hear that they're quite good deep fried. One could always grind the cooked bugs into a harmless-looking flour that could be added to breads or soups to boost the protein content of foods. There are several books out on the subject, and this is standard procedure in many countries where large livestock are either too expensive or just not feasible.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

I am so sorry to have to tell you this,but NOTHING WORKS ! We live in far North Texas,about 3 miles from Texas/Oklahoma border,and we have about 50 grasshoppers per square yard ! We have used "No-Lo Bait', Peper spray,have hundreds of birds,that are now sick of grasshoppers,we tried the flour/diatemaceous earth mixture,tobbaco juice/diazinanon mixture spray,etc,etc,etc,! The more we kill,the more we have ! Threatening to spray gasoline ongarden and light it up! Nothing left but stems anyway.They are now eating peaches off trees and stripping rose bushes. Sorry I couldnt help,but it is just too overwhelming to handle. PRAY !

-- Don and Carla (twosloans@texoma.net), July 09, 2001.

I use to have a uncle who fished all the time, both summer and winter. One summer we had grasshoppers everywhere. It was nothing to see 15-20 on each fence post. My uncle started coming down at night and would fill up several quart jars plum full of those critters and take them home and put them in the freezer. He would fish for crappie all year long. Just a suggestion, you might sell them to fishermens, or people who feed their iguanna lizards, etc.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 09, 2001.

Thanks, Everyone, for all the great suggestions. I fear that Don and Carla may be right. A local county agent says that if they are sprayed with malathion when they are tiny (too late for this year) that will kill them. But I'm already having trouble with squash not being pollinated so I don't want to take a chance killing off what few pollinators are still around. Anyway there are always more grasshoppers.

So I'm going to take Soni's advice and eat them. The problem is they are faster than I am so I wonder how to catch them in sufficient quantities. Maybe Russell can tell me where they go at night. Did they perch on that fence post overnight?

Has anyone had experience catching grasshoppers?

-- Lois (loiskimb@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

I think you could raise chickens and not pay a nickel for feed.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), July 09, 2001.

Yes, at night time is when you want to catch them. They roost on fence post, tall weeds, low tree limbs, any thing high off the ground, including the sides of house, shed, or barn. All you have to do is shine a bright flashlight on them and then they're varily easy to catch. It may even be a good time to spray them with something to kill them, although I don't know if that will have an effect on the good bugs or not. Haven't tried it! Good luck, whatever you try!

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 09, 2001.

Those dang hoppers are the reason I started raising chickens. I was at a friend's house the other day and it looks like my place did a few years back. Jeez, they cover you! I free feed all my critters, and there's always feed in the hoppers for the birds, but they sure keep this place cleaned out of those hoppers ~ and some are 4 inches long! My pesticide engineers do a great job and give me eggs as a bonus! -G-

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 10, 2001.

Rogo beat me to it, I was going to suggest running some chickens through the garden.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), July 10, 2001.

Horde of otherwise useless esoteric trivia to the rescue once again (thank Whoever it's good for something). Check out a book called "Man Eating Bugs" (or something like that). Not only cool anecdotal essays, but recipes and tips for capture. WHat I remember about catching eating quantities of hoppers was that several people worked together - a few were "beaters" who went through a field scaring up the hoppers somehow (I imagine just swinging a piece of bamboo pole through the grass would do it) and the others marched toward them from the other side carrying a raised, two or three person "fishing" net with small holes. A smaller scale op could be performed by a beater and someone with a butterfly net and quick relexes. Day or night, don't know which one would be better.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 11, 2001.

Sorry Soni, but I will wait until we have another major depression in this country before I will eat anything like that. I remember hearing stories from my mom when she was a little girl growing up during the depression. She talked about how they would catch a bunch of grasshoppers and pull their heads off (their entrails would come out with the head) and then they would fry them in a pan and pour water gravy over them. She said that they didn't have no choice, cause at the same time of the depression they also had a plague of grasshoppers that ate everything in the garden.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 12, 2001.

why dont u try using "FLY-PAPER".. im from india & we dont have any such problems.. but i was developing some flypapers for US markets... & these adhesives can hold any bug dwn...... sounds practical too.. just try it & let me know the results.will appreciate your feed back

-- Rana Singh (xenium_mktg@hotmail.com), February 02, 2002.

I've eaten them a few times in Thailand -- they're quite tasty. Take a big handful of the biggest ones you can catch (in Thailand they're about the size of your little finger), toss into a large wok with several inches of deepfrying oil. Those that get away ya gots to let go -- it's their karma to live another day. They cook very quickly, becoming a rich mahogany brown, like a well-fed cockroach, at which point you remove them with a slotted implement. Drain and spritz with a mixture of soy sauce and chili. They're crunchy, not oozhy like you'd think. I had my first one on a dare, of course.

-- snoozy (bunny@northsound.net), February 02, 2002.