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Garden Gate:  Grasshoppers  |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 27 2008 : 7:03:14 PM
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I am being plagued by grasshoppers. Al sizes and colors. they are eating everything, chive, rosemary, my rhubarb is just a skeleton. I've heard of roto-tilling areas in the fall to kill the eggs but does anyone have any other ideas that might help.
thanks, Laurie
Best Growing |
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Homespun Livin
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2008 : 1:31:59 PM
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If you don't have chickens to feed them too, then knock em on the ground and stomp on them! My sister in law has a nursery and landscaping business and those big black and yellow ones are trying their best to wipe out everything in site. She practices organic gardening and bought some baby guinea in hopes that they will help out someday, but for now she just squashes them.
"Love one another." |
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ruralfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
4309 Posts
Rene'
Prosser
WA
USA
4309 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2008 : 2:30:16 PM
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UGH! Laurie I am sorry to hear about the grasshoppers.. NO advice but boy can I sympathize.
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
" Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. Hosea 10:12 |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2008 : 6:22:10 PM
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Though technically I'm in the country, my area was annexed into the city so I am not supposed to have chickens. I wish i did. they'd be great! Hmm, maybe if I just got a few hens.....
Squashing them is harder than it looks, they are quick. One of the cats brought me my first present, but the thing was still alive. Since i didn't want it in the house I put it back out, too squemish to kill it with my hands. put it down to step on and away it went. Yup, you can all laugh now.
Best Growing |
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Txfarmgal
True Blue Farmgirl
585 Posts
AK
USA
585 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2008 : 9:04:10 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Montrose Girl
I am being plagued by grasshoppers. Al sizes and colors. they are eating everything, chive, rosemary, my rhubarb is just a skeleton. I've heard of roto-tilling areas in the fall to kill the eggs but does anyone have any other ideas that might help.
thanks, Laurie
Best Growing
its so dry here and there are grasshoppers everywhere. However I have a ton of frogs in my container garden and no grasshoppers are ever in there. I am thinking the frogs are taking care of the. hugs
AngiK
For he is faithful that promised. Hebrews 10:23
check out Texas 4H! http://texas4-h.tamu.edu/ |
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Farmtopia
True Blue Farmgirl
1465 Posts
Zan
New York
New York
USA
1465 Posts |
Posted - Jun 28 2008 : 9:45:11 PM
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Hey Laurie, my upstate farm friend has tried two approaches that seemed to work in previous years:
Get a couple of hot peppers, chop and dilute in regular tap water. Let sit overnight, then spray generously on said affected plants, or plants that you think are prone to grasshopper damage...they hate the taste andw will stay way from anything sprayed with it. I heard something similar about doing this with diluted garlic (garlic water) and onions, but I don't know about it's affectiveness. The only downside to this is that you will probably have to wash all your produce THOROUGHLY before you eat or cook with it to get the "hot" factor off of it! 
Another stranger one, although I'm assured it works, is to dilute two parts molasses to one part water (or less--you do want it to stay somewhat "sticky") put it in a spritzer, and when you see a grasshopper, just spray it thoroughly with this concoction. The sticky-ness is supposed to clog grasshopper nasal passages and side "gills," effectively suffocating it.  Hmmm..sounds sort of brutal, but I suppose it's no better that they eat all of your plants.
I've also heard of gardening companies that supply praying mantis and other predatory insects,so I guess if you could encourage that, it might be helpful! Good luck!
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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Homespun Livin
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 7:46:35 PM
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Awww, we wouldn't laugh at you! Stomping grasshoppers is tricky. We couldn't posssibly get to all of them ourselves, but my son thought it was great fun trying. :) My daughter on the other hand, absolutely hates any sort of bug and would have no part of it. That is too bad that you can't have chickens though. :( Maybe pepper or garlic spray will help. I hope you find a solution.
"Love one another." |
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Homespun Livin
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - Jun 29 2008 : 7:54:26 PM
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Okay, I just googled this: hot pepper wax spray, products with neem, and another product that is grasshopper specific is ecobran that has a fungis type bait that specifically targets grasshoppers and their relatives.
"Love one another." |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 06:17:45 AM
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Thanks for all the ideas with this one.
Best Growing |
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Bfriday
True Blue Farmgirl
125 Posts
Jessica
Miles
TX
125 Posts |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 10:49:45 AM
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I've been reading alot about insects and what works to kill them because I am haveing a horrible dire ant problem this year. The grasshoppers have arrived here too. So I read the pepper spray will work. Also, orange oil mixed with molasses. You can buy it already mixed at most garden stores, then dilute with water. It is working great on the fire ants but will also keep away many other bugs. The books also said neem spray, also at most garden stores. Praying Mantis will eat grasshoppers if you can get them. Some garden stores will sell them to release in your garden like ladybugs! Let us know what works for you!!
Farmgirl Sister #188 |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
Posted - Jun 30 2008 : 6:12:34 PM
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Last year i had praying mantis. This year i hadn't seen any and I thought I lost them, but today I saw two, both still small so I know they are here. yippee!
Best Growing |
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quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
7489 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
7489 Posts |
Posted - Jun 01 2013 : 08:46:53 AM
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I am writing this to hopefully revitalize the topic of grasshoppers and how to get rid of them -
I am in east Texas, and we need a very hard winter to kill off the eggs the grasshoppers lay. I have thousands (probably more) grasshoppers already this year. Last year they ate almost everything in sight. In this area the agriculture extension office and nurseries suggest using NOLO Bait (http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/noloinfo.html), which gives a virus to the grasshoppers and is only harmful to grasshoppers and some crickets; it doesn't harm other farm animals or pets who eat the grasshoppers. Since they are cannibals, they also pass it on to each other when they eat their dead. It is supposedly passed on for up to 3 years. I put some out a couple weeks ago, but so far it is not showing any reduction in the numbers of them - they keep multiplying. I need to put it out again to catch some of the newer hatchlings. The younger they are the quicker it affect them.
I am looking for chickens and ducks to help keep the population down.
I am going to try the hot pepper spray. In one day they devoured several ground cover plants and all of my begonias. Last year they ate many of the bushes and even many of the leaves of my two old large sycamore trees. I have pasture land all around me, so treating my "yard" area doesn't do much good - they just move in from the pastures.
I have not planted a vegetable garden because I am afraid the grasshoppers would be too damaging to the plants.
Any more ideas? Thanks!
Linda O
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919 |
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oldbittyhen
True Blue Farmgirl
1511 Posts
tina
quartz hill
ca
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - Jun 01 2013 : 09:21:59 AM
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Linda, we have the 7 yr plauge with hoppers, it is insane when we do, driving down the road is crunch, crunch,crunch...what I have found that works well along with hot pepper spray is "Muscovy ducks', they will run around and shovel them up like gluttons, plus flies, and anything else they can reach...
"Knowlege is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad" |
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quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
7489 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
7489 Posts |
Posted - Jun 01 2013 : 09:45:22 AM
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Tina - I am definitely looking for ducks - and chickens. Thanks for the brand suggestion.
Linda O
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919 |
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westfork woman
True Blue Farmgirl
554 Posts
Kennie Lyn
Emmett
Idaho
USA
554 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2013 : 10:14:01 AM
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Oh, grasshoppers are the worst, except for Mormon crickets, but the crickets don't stay around for years like grasshoppers. The first 12 years of our marriage had 7 bad, bad grasshopper years. So bad they ate the carrots right out of the ground. The only thing in my garden they didn't eat was winter squash. The would even eat clothes hanging on the line and the curtains in the house if they got in without me finding them. Our 500 acre ranch is surrounded by public land, so we can't do anything without the state or BLM's help. The hoppers ate the alfalfa, the fruit trees, all the brush in the creek, and mowed the grass down on the dry pastures. And the smell was awful. Of course they laid their eggs on our irrigated lawn in the millions. After they lay eggs they die, and stink. Horribly. The officials sprayed a few times with malathion, and it did help for a year or 2, then they would be back. The last bad year we were thinking about hiring a plane and spraying ourselves, to try to protect our alfalfa. But before we could make up our minds, one evening a heaven sent solution appeared. I don't know where they came from, but thousands and thousands of doves and black birds showed up just before dark. The birds roosted in our barn yard, not at the house, but on the barns and fences and machinery, and the orchard trees. They left a horrible mess, but the next morning they started down the hollow below our house, thru our alfalfa and dry pastures, and creek bottom. The must have eaten every grasshopper from here to the river about 5 miles away. I have never seen anything like it, but I truly believe that same thing was what saved the Mormon crops from crickets in Utah. It was a wonderful act of God. But, knowing that is a once in lifetime or several lifetimes event, my best suggestion is chickens or maybe turkeys. If you can't have them, I would try the NOLO bait.
Greetings from the morning side of the hill. |
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quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
7489 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
7489 Posts |
Posted - Jun 08 2013 : 2:53:14 PM
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Someone I met on Friday has some young chickens he is selling, and he is supposed to tell me how many I can get from him. He said they love grasshoppers, and that my crop of grasshoppers will be great food for the chickens. Hooray!!! There may be an end to the hoppers in sight. LOL!
The NOLO bait is supposed to kill the Mormon crickets, too, but so far I haven't seen any of them.
Those doves and blackbirds were a godsend it sounds like. I have a lot of cardinals, doves, and grackels in my yard but they don't seem to eat many of the hoppers.
Linda O
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919 |
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Garden Gate: Grasshoppers |
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Grasshoppers
