Christ First Forum

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/21/247 ... hills.html

Grasshoppers are covering the foothills and pastures from the Merced-Mariposa county line up toward the mountains, invading gardens and crops by the thousands.

Two consecutive wet years and plenty of natural grasses have provided a good environment for grasshoppers to thrive, said Gene Hannon, entomologist with the Fresno County Department of Agriculture.

"They didn't die off like they have in the past and now there is lots of food," Hannon said. "That will cause their populations to grow."

Grasshoppers can defoliate almost everything in sight, said Maxwell Norton, interim director of the University of California Cooperative Extension in Mariposa. The grasshoppers are found in the foothills and rangelands because they like undisturbed land to lay their eggs.

"In cultivated agricultural land, their life cycle gets disturbed by irrigation and tilling and they can't build up their numbers," Norton said. "In town, people tend to spray for bugs, so they don't get a foothold there, either."

In Fresno County, grasshoppers have become a minor problem for a few property owners in the eastern foothills. Hannon said he's received about 10 calls about grasshoppers over the last several weeks, including from people in the Friant and Auberry areas.

But in Mariposa, the grasshoppers are so thick this year that Norton said he gave a talk to some master gardeners Monday afternoon on how to keep their gardens and plants safe from the insects.

The population of grasshoppers varies from year to year, and severe outbreaks, like Mariposa County is seeing this year, come every eight to 10 years and can last two or three years. Adults can fly up to 15 or more miles a day to find food.

Norton said there are steps that gardeners can take to keep the grasshoppers under control, including using a pesticide such as Sevin or an organic control called Semaspore.

Gardeners may have to resort to building screened-in enclosures for their plants and gardens, Norton said. "The screens have to be metal – the grasshoppers will chew through plastic."

Although grasshoppers are one of the most troublesome pests to manage, they do have some natural enemies, such as birds, blister beetles and robber flies. Chickens and guinea hens also like to eat grasshoppers.

"They also eat each other," Norton said. "They're pretty dumb."