Hopping Mad About Grasshoppers
Hopping Mad About Grasshoppers
It’s not nice to serve up your vegies and herbs with the leaves eaten is it? Grasshoppers live a long time as far as insects go. The life cycle takes about 10-12 months, starting when an adult female lays up to three pods (about 20 eggs per pod) in the soil. The eggs sit there over cool weather, hatching in warmer weather.
The young grasshopper goes through 5 stages of growth and moulting of its exo-skeleton before reaching the mature size. Once mature, the female lays her eggs before dying, and the cycle starts all over again. So that explains why you don’t find many grasshoppers in winter. They are all sitting as eggs in the soil.
What to do about them?
You can blast them and everything else to death with chemical sprays designed to kills every living thing, or you can try organic methods.
I prefer organic. Here are some suggestions from what to try first to the last resort!:
- Keep your soil healthy with lots of active life. Soil nematodes, and other insects control grasshoppers through attacking their eggs in the soil.
- Protect your precious plants with barriers. Basil is a favourite with grasshoppers. I bag mine up like a ball of fairy floss, using frost protection fabric tied with string at the base of the plant.
- If basil is a problem grow it in the shade over summer so it’s not as attractive to grasshoppers.
- Grasshoppers are put off by sweet sugariness on plants. Try spraying with a mix of molasses and water. I make up a solution with water to resemble strong black coffee and spray every few days.
- Use Chinese herbs. Nutri Tech has an organic certified product that repels insects and works well with grasshoppers. It’s called Vitaguard. Call me for some if you’d like to try it.
- Neem seems to have some effectiveness against grasshoppers. They do need to ingest the product first as it’s a growth regulator. I use Eco Neem in my garden. It’s organic and is available from nurseries and hardware stores
What are those mounds in your grass?
They may be ants, but they are most likely mole crickets, related to grasshoppers. While they do eat plant roots and the mounds of soil around their burrows are a pest, I tend to leave them alone unless you have a bowling green lawn. Try neem powder or spray drench if you are really bothered.