If you’ve got grasshopper problems now, you’re probably going to continue to have them until this fall, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service entomologist. Grasshoppers are long-lived; they’re with us most of the summer, and growers are still battling them, said Dr. Allen Knutson, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Dallas. Some producers have already had to re-treat two or three times to protect crops. Excessive grasshopper numbers can consume forage amounts equal to a grown cow. Grasshoppers thrive in hot weather; the problems they pose to yards, landscapes, and crops will likely get worse before they get better. There are really only five species of grasshoppers that pose much of a problem. It appears that we have a large number of these species of grasshoppers right now.
As we get into the hot, dry summer, more and more of their wild host plants, weeds, and wild grasses dry up, and that forces them into our yards, landscapes, and crop areas, especially irrigated fields. High grasshopper populations are tied to drought for a number of reasons. The first grasshopper hatch was earlier than normal because spring warmed up sooner than normal. Because many areas had a dry winter, a fungus, Entomophthora grylli, that usually causes high grasshopper mortality was not as prevalent in many areas.
If folks in a particular area didn’t have an early grasshopper population boom, they’re unlikely to see one later in the summer. Though grasshoppers live two months or longer after they reach the adult stage, they are homebodies, rarely travelling more than a few miles from where they were hatched.
