These annoying insects have huge appetites.
Use these tips to keep them from devouring your garden.
Learn how to combat a grasshopper outbreak with these tips.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
How to Spot Grasshoppers in Your Garden
Grasshoppers are common throughout the United States.
You might see them in shades of green, gold, or brown.
They chew ragged-looking holes in plant leaves.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
There are more than 100 types of grasshoppers, and they eat all kinds of plants.
Most grasshoppers emerge in the spring from eggs laid the previous fall.
A cool, wet spring will destroy many of the hatchlings.
Here’s how to get rid of grasshoppers and control their reproduction.
A few other garden predators, such as spiders and toads, will also help keep grasshoppers under control.
To encourage birds to take up residence in your yard, provide awater sourceandnesting habitat.
A diverse selection ofnative trees and shrubswill also attract birds.
It’s important to reapply it after a rain.
It’s most effective on young grasshoppers, but not all grasshopper species are susceptible to the disease.
Another option is agarlic-based repellent($16,Arbico Organics).
Also, insecticides won’t keep new grasshoppers from coming into your garden.
And the products that kill grasshoppers also kill beneficial insects, so use them with extreme caution.
Look for products containing carbaryl or permethrin.
Apply insecticides when the eggs begin to hatch in May or June when they’re young and less mobile.
They’re both members of the Orthoptera category of insects.
In Mexico and Central America, they’re a snack known aschapulines.
They’re about 40 percent protein, 43 percent fat, and 13 percent dietary fiber.
Scientists believe this helps them defend against predators.
