Grasshoppers

[TexasBred]

Riding throught the pasture this morning and looks like the beginning of our 3rd year in a row being overrun with grasshoppers. Very small right now but they were jumping everywhere....Got some beautiful coastal bermuda for grazing so looks like the grasshoppers will eat well.

 

[gus2121]

I had a pasture wiped out by grasshoppers last year. I was told the stuff used for army worms would kill them. Is that right?

 

[TexasBred]

I had a pasture wiped out by grasshoppers last year. I was told the stuff used for army worms would kill them. Is that right?

Yeah most any good pesticide will kill them. Or at least kill what you get it on. You just never get all of them and they multiply quickly. I sprayed 3 times last year and just gave up. This will be the 3rd year to have a complete infestation.

 

[midTN_Brangusman]

Yeah most any good pesticide will kill them. Or at least kill what you get it on. You just never get all of them and they multiply quickly. I sprayed 3 times last year and just gave up. This will be the 3rd year to have a complete infestation.

TB, did you have any luck getting rid of your grasshoppers? I also have them bad, they are eating the heck out of my Bermuda.

 

[Travlr]

We drove through a swarm of Mormon crickets a few days ago, north of Casper, WY. Some people we know said they were thick enough on the road in Austin, NV that the asphalt was slippery.

 

[Brute 23]

My family lost a field of Tifton a few years back to grasshoppers. My dad called to get it cut and a week or so later the hay guy showed up and said there was not enough left to cut. We have sprayed for them but it doesn't have much of a residual. You killehat tou get it on and that was it. They can just feed back in from the pastures around where you sprayed. When we sprayed, it was basically to buy a week or two for the hay guy to get there. It was not a long term solution.

Old man who lived across the creek from that place had lived there all his life. Said huge flocks of turkey use to travel the creek and keep the grasshoppers in check.

 

[Otha]

We spray vantacore I believe it is. That's how you say it not how you spell it. It's supposed to last 30-45 days. It seems to be doing the trick 2 weeks in. I have seen people spray their fields then go back a few days or week later and spray the outsides round or tow again as the neighbor grasshoppers move over. Good to try to spray to fence rows if you can make it happen. It was $30 an acre to spray. With hay at $100 a roll it doesn't take but 300 lbs per acre of grass saved to break even.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Yeah most any good pesticide will kill them. Or at least kill what you get it on. You just never get all of them and they multiply quickly. I sprayed 3 times last year and just gave up. This will be the 3rd year to have a complete infestation.

Spray your fence lines and ditches, that is where Mrs Grasshopper like to lay her eggs.
Spray your pasture in strip's bout 100' apart, it's just as effective as spraying the whole pasture.
I would have to go pull up some of my old TAMU data, if I remember correctly 300 grown grasshoppers eat as much as a cow a day.

 

[Travlr]

I would have to go pull up some of my old TAMU data, if I remember correctly 300 grown grasshoppers eat as much as a cow a day.

Everything I've seen would suggest that it would take a lot more than 300 grasshoppers to eat as much as a cow. In fact from what I've seen insects have a better feed conversion rate than mammals, birds, or fish. I'd believe a FCR of 2.5/1 but more would be a stretch.

 

[Travlr]

Just had another thought too. Grasshoppers get eaten when cattle forage and they are high quality feed.

This from google: Insects in general consist of approximately 40 to 60 % protein and up to 36 % fat. They are naturally eaten by cattle, pigs, poultry and fish as part of their species-appropriate diet.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Spray your fence lines and ditches, that is where Mrs Grasshopper like to lay her eggs.
Spray your pasture in strip's bout 100' apart, it's just as effective as spraying the whole pasture.
I would have to go pull up some of my old TAMU data, if I remember correctly 300 grown grasshoppers eat as much as a cow a day.

"Grasshoppers consume up to 50% of their body weight every day in forage. Cattle consume abut 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in forage, so pound for pound, a grasshopper will eat 12-20 times as much plant material as a steer. Another way to look at it is that 30 pounds of grasshoppers will eat as much as a 600-pound steer."

From OSU.

 

[Travlr]

"Grasshoppers consume up to 50% of their body weight every day in forage. Cattle consume abut 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in forage, so pound for pound, a grasshopper will eat 12-20 times as much plant material as a steer. Another way to look at it is that 30 pounds of grasshoppers will eat as much as a 600-pound steer."

From OSU.

That makes more sense. That would mean ten grasshoppers per pound. Still... does that mean all the extra calories in their feed conversion goes to energy instead of gain? Them's some buff bugs...

 

[Caustic Burno]

You apparently have never seen Carolina grasshoppers.
They are actually locust.
Not all grasshoppers are locust.

 

[Rmc]

Best to treat them early . If you don't treat at the right stage you are wasting time and money. Biological control should also be considered. A good way to break the cycle .
Not grasshoppers . But lots of intermountain west has a Mormon cricket infestation.

 

[Philip-TX]

"Grasshoppers consume up to 50% of their body weight every day in forage. Cattle consume abut 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in forage, so pound for pound, a grasshopper will eat 12-20 times as much plant material as a steer. Another way to look at it is that 30 pounds of grasshoppers will eat as much as a 600-pound steer."

From OSU.

How many grasshoppers make up that 30 lbs?

If an avg. grasshopper weight is 0.01oz (from google).....
how much does a grasshopper weigh

?48,000? If I did the math right.
.005oz per day per hopper=240lbs/day for 48,000 hoppers

FWIW-I have used Lambda in the past with pretty good results.

 

[1982vett]

Armyworms can eat up a pasture in a matter of days, grasshoppers can do it too. However, can't say I've seen armyworms strip the leaves off a tree.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

Just had another thought too. Grasshoppers get eaten when cattle forage and they are high quality feed.

This from google: Insects in general consist of approximately 40 to 60 % protein and up to 36 % fat. They are naturally eaten by cattle, pigs, poultry and fish as part of their species-appropriate diet.

Wife of a farmer out here had them 'feed tested' quite a few years back and that's what she found out too. Not sure the numbers, but yup, high protein. So how can we cut and bale those suckers. =)

 

[sunnyblueskies]

We've got it bad here too this year. Some people sprayed, but as one person said before, you are just buying some time, but is it going to make a lot of difference?
It's a bad year, drought and grasshoppers, very depressing and sad to go out in the field.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Armyworms can eat up a pasture in a matter of days, grasshoppers can do it too. However, can't say I've seen armyworms strip the leaves off a tree.

They can eat it overnight!
I have seen grasshoppers give them a pretty good race.
Seems army worms are every year, grasshoppers are very sporadic here that they get in plague numbers.
I don't know what conditions make the perfect storm , they cover the roads.
There is a huge flightless one that's really not a threat to pasture. They seem to prefer woody type plants.
They seem to hatch in biblical proportions every few years.

 

[Otha]

I remember someone telling me that grasshoppers lay their eggs in bare soil. Also that they prefer lower quality and or mature plants. That makes sense. We see more grass hoppers where our pasture is thinner. We don't have many were the grass is thicker and ground is always covered. Don't have much trouble with them in the irrigated pastures either.


Does that sound correct?