Grasshoppers are often noisy insects, usually brown or green, have big back legs, big eyes, wings, and a short pair of antennae. There are about 10,000 different kinds.
As kids we found grasshoppers in the fields and they were a source of hours of entertainment.
Grasshoppers are not usually a pest problem except when certain kinds multiply into large numbers and become a pest infestation and consume every plant and grass they see. Locusts are best known for this serious crop damage especially...cereal grains...type of behavior.
Grasshoppers have natural predators that keep their numbers under control usually. Rodents, spiders, lizards, mantis, and robber flies are examples that feed on grasshoppers. Bee flies and blister beetles are examples of natural predators that destroy grasshopper eggs.
How to prevent grasshoppers:
How to get rid of grasshoppers:
How to kill grasshoppers:
- Chemical Control: All three of these needs are resolved by aerial or misting or ground based spraying or cultivating trap strips around each field...each of which is an approach that uses pesticides for control.
- Grazing: All three concerns are also addressed with letting cattle graze on areas where a suspected problem may occur.
- Habitat manipulation is another method of control like plowing and tilling of the soil, to remove plants on which they feed and bury the eggs in areas where they are hatching in great numbers.
- Earlier planting of crops is a strategy that avoids large numbers of grasshopper damages.
