Yup, those little ghoppers can be a pain. Ive caught them eating my leaves before for many plants. I know that its not good to spray products such as raid and other bug killers, but heck, I did whenever I saw them and they seem to have almost disappeared (once last year). Sometimes it just throws them out of whack with a light mist of it, and BLAM! hit them with a shovel. Of course, never near any of my edible plants! For that I usually just hose them off the plant and they leave. Yeah, those grasshoppers know not to be around after Ive been sitting in traffic for over an hour when I get home!

I use Garden Safe Houseplant and Garden killer. I moved to rural NC where there are no trees, and 1 acre plots. Only about 1/3 of the lots are even built on. However, they are mowed regularly. There was not a single plant around this house. I've put in a lot of butterfly/hummingbird friendly plants since we've moved in, all are still pretty small. We've been here a year this month. Last fall I put in about 10 milkweed plants that were about 4 inches tall. They came back strong this spring, but then the aphids came and completely stunted the growth. There were no flowers to attract any butterflies, much less monarchs. So I sprayed once this spring. Again in July the aphids were back in full force, and I have yet to see a single monarch. I check pretty often, and so do my kids for caterpillars or eggs, and haven't seen one, or any evidence of one. So I sprayed again for the aphids. I realize that this stuff will kill the cats, but I don't have any as of yet, and the aphids were really taking over!! I did put in the milkweeds specifically for the monarchs, and prefer not to spray at all. I also sprayed late in the evening both times. Funny thing, they had live lady bugs at the nursery up the road, but I didn't have any aphids yet. When I got the aphids, they were all out and never restocked :(. Christy

1. use it. asap in case there are mosquito larvae in there. Standing water = mosquitos. :( There's a bacterial product that will kill grasshoppers--can't remember the name. It only kills grasshoppers, doesn't affect anything else. Or go out just after sunrise with a scissors and cut their heads off. They move really slow early in the morning. Take the hose and with a hard spray wash off the rosemary and see if that helps. Rosemary is one of the toughest plants there is. You can always trim off the ugly bits. Dried out? Give it a single deep soak and wait. If it recovers you can cut it back by about one third to make it look better. Do not cut all the way down into old, dried bare stems as they will not sprout new growth.

Spinosad is not that effective on grasshoppers. Chickens, however, are a good organic solutions, plus you get some good poop to compost. "Once grasshoppers have invaded the garden, insecticides won't be very effective and must be reapplied every few days as long as the invasion continues; read the product label to determine the allowable frequency of applications. Carbaryl and other insecticides such as cyfluthrin or other pyrethroids commonly used as sprays for grasshopper control are very toxic to bees, natural enemies of grasshoppers, and aquatic life, although carbaryl in bait form is less hazardous to bees. Reserve the use of insecticides for serious situations where they may provide a significant level of control, ideally as baits around the edge of the garden before grasshoppers invade." From UC Davis Grasshopper management