I think I addressed all the garden pest questions but I forgot to talk about the grasshoppers. Oops! One reason is that grasshoppers are pretty unique in that they are so, so, so, so hard to kill unless you nuke the entire landscape with heavy, heavy doses of very bad pesticides. So, here's the scoop on controlling grasshoppers organically.

Grasshoppers have been a huge problem for us some years and not a problem at all in other years. Many years they are only a minor nuisance, but when they are bad, they are very bad.

In the years in which grasshoppers were bad, we had generally very hot dry weather later in the summer, and sometimes also in the spring and early summer. I have heard that grasshoppers run in 7-year cycles. I have not found that to be precisely true here, but they seem to be worse for 3 or 4 years and then not as bad for 3 or 4 years and then they get worse again.

Most contact pesticides seem to kill only a few of the grasshoppers you have around, unless applied quite heavily, and most of us don't want to poison our land that much.

You know me--I rely a lot of my guineas and chickens! Did you know that one guinea can eat 2 pounds of grasshoppers in one day? Once our guineas have picked our place clean, they go to the ranch across the street as well as to the one next door. The guineas can be annoyingly noisy but the neighbors love it when they come ranging across their property eating grasshoppers and ticks! (I have WONDERFUL neighbors.)

If you can't have poultry, all is not lost. You can still get pretty good grasshopper control by spreading an organic product called semasphore which kills grasshoppers. The product that I see most often which contains semasphore is Nolo Bait, but there are many brands available.

If you can't find it locally, you can order it on-line and have it shipped. I know that in the past, some folks on this forum have been able to find semasphore in nurseries and farm and ranch supply stores. A lot of the folks that sell organic products online have it too. Planet Natural is one company that sells it under the name Semaspore Bait, in 1-lb., 5-lb. and 50-lb. pkgs. One pound covers one acre. Their website is www.planetnatural.com.

If you've never used Nolo Bait, you need to know that it will infect this year's grasshoppers SOME but the real difference will be most apparent next year. Once grasshoppers eat the stuff and begin dying, the disease is spread to the others through cannibalism. They claim that in 2 to 4 weeks, 50% of the current population of grasshopppers will die, IF you put out the Semaspore while the hoppers are at the 1/4" to 1/2" stage. Timing is everything. For us, way down here in southern Oklahoma, grasshoppers are usually in the 14" to 1/2" stage in April or May depending on when the last freeze occurs and when they hatch out.

Based on my experiences with grasshoppers in Oklahoma and Texas, I think the manufacturers of semasphore products are not exaggerating. We have had wonderful success with Nolo Bait. But, one problem with grasshoppers is that even if you kill the ones you have, more may migrate in.

One advantage of using Semasphore or Nolo Bait is that even the sickened grasshoppers who don't die are still affected and will eat 75% less of your plants! If you don't use all the Semasphore or Nolo at one time, just refrigerate it. It will last 5 months in the fridge, or 4 to 6 weeks in the closet. I'm always careful when I buy it to check the "Packed On" or "Use By" date, as some retailers will sell it when it is out-of-date. Refuse to buy it if it is out-of-date because its effectiveness will be greatly diminished!

The active ingredient is Nosema locustae, a naturally occurring grasshopper disease. The bait is safe for use around people, pets, etc. I think it may kill crickets or locusts also, but I'm not positive. All I know is that this stuff works!

And, if you have an outbreak of grasshoppers later in the year when it is too late to use Semasphore/Nolo Bait, there is a relatively new product, also offered by Planet Natural, called EcoBran. You can see it on their website. I haven't tried it, but folks who have tried it felt it was effective when they used it. It is a chemical, but it has a relatively low percentage of active ingredient. I don't know if it is labeled for use around poultry, gamebirds or wildlife though.

If your grasshoppers are too large for Nolo Bait to work this year, remember to get some and put it out next spring.

We had a HUGE grasshopper problem in the 1999-2002 time frame, and using Nolo Bait those years made a huge difference. We seldom see grasshoppers here any more, so I think that the nosema locuste disease has become established on our land, and the guineas take care of the ones that migrate in during hot weather.

One of the old, old organic gardening methods is to sprinkle plain old all-purpose flour on plants that are being gobbled up by grasshoppers. Supposedly the flour gums up their mouths and they stop feeding and die. I tried it in 1999 and 2000 and it seemed moderately effective. HOWEVER, my plants didn't like having flour sprinkled on their leaves, esp. the tomato plants. So, if you do it, sprinkle the flour on the plants in cloudy (hopefully non-rainy) weather and hose it off of the plants after a day or so. Actually, with this year's weather, the rain might wash it off the plants for you, but hopefully not before the grasshoppers eat it.

Another old, old gardening method is to mix a tablespoon or so of molasses into a canning jar of water. I always use quart jars and fill them up 1/2 way. Place several jars among your plants where the grasshoppers will see them and have easy access to them. The grasshoppers are attracted to the sweet water, jump in to drink, and then drown. This seems to work pretty well, which reminds me of another old organic method of repelling rabbits.....

I have read that placing canning jars of water repels rabbits from the garden. I tried it one year and it seemed to work. I don't know why. Some things just can't be explained. lol

Dawn