Grasshoppers

[Thunder]

We have tons of grasshoppers here in the summer. Do they eat the grass or just weeds and trees? I'm wondering if they damage the pasture.

 

[birdog]

The ones we have eat everything!

 

[TCRanch]

The ones we have eat everything!

Even the paint on the house. Hate 'em!

 

[Brute 23]

Yes they do. We lost a Tifton hay field a few years back waiting on the hay man. Grasshoppers cleaned it out. An old timer told us that is why he wont shoot a turkey. He said when he was young huge flocks of turkey would travel through and clean them out.

 

[faster horses]

They are bad in SE MT, NE WY! They eat everything!!

 

[greybeard]

plagues of locusts of biblical proportion...

 

[1982vett]

They do like dry weather...

 

[Rydero]

Been at war all summer. It's futile and expensive to do anything to get rid of them if mother nature wants them there, except to knock them back while a crop establishes..

To answer the original questions yes they eat grass, they're grasshoppers not weedhoppers or crophoppers. If I remember correctly I think in a bad infestation they'll eat between 30 & 40 percent of the available forage.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Turkeys are what is standing between my pasture and the grasshoppers. So far so good.
Rotational grazing keeps the cows in grass and the 'turks' in bugs.
"Praise God from Whom all blessing flow!)

 

[Wind and Sage]

We have tons of grasshoppers here in the summer. Do they eat the grass or just weeds and trees? I'm wondering if they damage the pasture.

The real small ones are the biggest problem here in Wyoming. The great big ones don't do much damage, but the little ones can be as many as 100 or more in one square foot. I sprayed a couple of pastures last year, after talking to the County Weed and Pest. It helped quite a bit, although this was just rangeland, and cost me about $1500. Definitely worth it, or I wouldn't have had grass left in the pasture I do my calving in. About 10 years ago, the Weed and Pest sprayed the entire county, which meant everyone had signed up for it. It helped for several years. To answer your question directly, like the other people posting, Yes--they eat everything and are terribly destructive.

 

[Thunder]

Been at war all summer. It's futile and expensive to do anything to get rid of them if mother nature wants them there, except to knock them back while a crop establishes..

To answer the original questions yes they eat grass, they're grasshoppers not weedhoppers or crophoppers. If I remember correctly I think in a bad infestation they'll eat between 30 & 40 percent of the available forage.

Thank you. I suppose they can eat a lot of grass, then. Luckily, we had some rain this summer and they have left my jujube tree alone. Poor thing usually gets butchered by the grasshoppers.

Next question: do dragonflies breathe fire?

 

[Thunder]

How many chickens, ducks, or turkeys would it take per acre to make a difference?

 

[birdog]

Free range chickens...You might be on to something.

 

[Rydero]

Let's see...I have about 20 chickens running around my 1 acre yard and there's still a million grasshoppers. So 100 chickens/turkeys per acre to make a dent in a large population, maybe more?

With all due respect to Lee (I don't want my teeth knocked out) I doubt Turkeys are the main thing controlling the grasshoppers. Perhaps conditions aren't favorable to an infestation? Here for instance grasshoppers are rarely a concern outside of a drought.

 

[Brute 23]

Turkeys are what is standing between my pasture and the grasshoppers. So far so good.
Rotational grazing keeps the cows in grass and the 'turks' in bugs.
"Praise God from Whom all blessing flow!)

Are your turkeys wild or do you raise them?

We have a place where you can see 60+ wild turkeys in a flock. You can tell when they are in the area. They travel a big area though.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Turkeys are wild. Eastern Bronze I think......

 

[BFE]

Free range chickens...You might be on to something.

Then you'll be like that free ranger in Georgia where the Bald Eagles wipe out his chicken flock to the point of unprofitability.

 

[BFE]

An Organic Chicken Farm in Georgia Has Become an Endless Buffet for Bald Eagles

Dozens of the raptors crash White Oak Farms each winter to dine on its fields of pasture-raised poultry. With little recourse, the farmers are racing to adapt.

www.audubon.org

 

[tex452]

They do like dry weather...

I was always told that grasshoppers are at their worst during dry weather and that wet weather gives them a virus and kills most of them.
We have had one of the wettest summers that I can remember and the hoppers are as bad as ever so this has to be false.

 

[1982vett]

I was always told that grasshoppers are at their worst during dry weather and that wet weather gives them a virus and kills most of them.
We have had one of the wettest summers that I can remember and the hoppers are as bad as ever so this has to be false.

Up until recently we haven't had any.

I remember one year they were so bad the were stripping the leaves off the trees and you couldn't walk through the yard without them "attacking" you. Dad had a crop duster spray 20 acres around the house. They fell out of the trees like rainfall….then the stench of them rotting was a problem for a week or so.