A Plague of Grasshoppers

I walk by the roses and hardy hibiscus in the landscape, almost hidden among the larkspur and clustered bellflower, and I hear a peppering of startled small grasshoppers finding a new location. I walk by the Chinese Cabbage in the garden and hear the same raindrop-like drumming, and shudder. There must be hundreds of them disturbed in each yard of progress down the row. They're eating happily of course when I'm not disturbing them--eating and growing through about five instar stages till they reach the really menacing stage in late summer. Then, they'll be several inches long and even more voracious. Besides, they will have functioning wings, and can move about by flying. No more being restricted to the distance they can travel one hop at a time.

I thought grasshoppers thrived in hot dry weather, and we have had very little of that so far this spring. What's the deal?

Hiromi is concerned about the grasshoppers' effect on the garden, for the first time I can remember, and is casting about for remedies. He keeps saying we need to do something, and asking me what we can do.

I've mentioned guineas, which are death on insects. He liked the idea and inquired of Jerry whether they have any for sale. They don't, but they had gotten some at the monthly poultry auction at Yoder just the week before. If we hope to get any there, we'll have to wait. Also, if we get them as keets--the best way to make sure they're trainable to roost in a shelter overnight--we'll need to keep them confined for at least six weeks, meanwhile giving them all the babying that baby chicks need. By the time we can let them out, the grasshoppers will have morphed into adults since they can do that within a 30-40 day time span.

The more major problem with guineas is the presence of Max, who has a predatory view of birds. We'll have to keep them well-separated if the young guineas are to have any chance of survival. Or Max will have to learn an absolutely convincing lesson about leaving birds alone. As it is now, Max thinks it's great fun to bound through the tall wheat across the road, fruitlessly pursuing any birds flying over the field. What a silly, exuberant, and potentially naughty dog.

Hiromi wondered aloud today if finding a new home for Max for the rest of the summer would be a good idea. Grant doesn't think so. Sigh. Does anyone know how to pre-emtively cure a dog whose live animal retrieval instinct functions only in overdrive? (We're putting aside for the moment the retrieval instinct regarding dead things. The latest porch decoration he dreamed up was a very large and well-bleached bovine skull that was about as big as Max's torso, according to Grant. I saw him proudly carry it into the yard from who knows where, and the next morning it was on the porch, along with several branches and a tumbleweed. I had just cleared and neatly swept the porch, and he couldn't stand the clean spot, I guess.)

To Hiromi, on the grasshopper problem, I also mentioned Nolo Bait. It is a mixture of bran and Nosema locustae spores, a protozoan pathogen specific to grasshoppers. You spread the bait and the grasshoppers that ingest it get sick and die. If other grasshoppers cannibalize the dead or dying grasshoppers, the grisly party continues as the disease spreads. Once treated, any area that harbors the protozoan has the same effect on grasshoppers in succeeding years. There are several problems with this approach to grasshopper control. As is the case with the guinea solution, the process is relatively slow. Also, as large, winged grasshoppers fly in, they can do a lot of chomping before they encounter the bait and succumb to the disease.

"Just spray them," Grant said. "You're not doing everything organically anyway." I'm thinking he has a point, although I still bristle at the prospect of putting anything on my plants that has the capability of assaulting a human body.

Grant doesn't know about my "glory and shame" box of potions from Gardens Alive!--a supplier of environmentally safe pesticides. I've bought quite a few products, and seldom, if ever, used any of them--evidence of my tendency to prepare well and follow through poorly. Now is the time for the products from Gardens Alive! to shine. I will show them to Hiromi, who is strong on follow-through, and I believe those grasshoppers may be terminated shortly--by means of Pyola, or Bullseye bioinsecticide, or Neem oil, or whatever is right for doing in baby grasshoppers. Adults are impervious to most of the more environmentally benign insecticides.

I will read the book we just got from Amazon: Gardening with Guineas. I first read it several years ago, from the library. And I think we'll track down some Nolo bait. These long term solutions are worth pursuing, but, in the meantime, there's that Gardens Alive! box, which I hope translates into a "grasshoppers dead" result, and eventually a garden alive.