Knowledgebase

Grasshopper control #757491

Asked June 21, 2021, 2:02 PM EDT

What can I use to rid my garden and yard of grasshoppers. I want to target the hoppers and not the beneficial insects. I see places that recommend bait, but it looks like cracked grain laced with poison. The problem with that is we have so many song birds in the area I don’t think they would leave the bait on the ground long enough to be consumed by the hoppers. We put grass seed out and within hours the yard looks like an aviary, without the cage.

Sully County South Dakota

Expert Response

Grasshoppers in large numbers are tough to manage and odds are good you will not be able to kill them all, but hopefully we can get them down to a reasonable population.

This resource from CA has a good overview of the bait options - http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74103.html. The bait with the protozoan is probably too slow acting to be of much use at this point.

Targeting a perimeter around the garden with insecticide can be a way to put a dent in their population while avoiding a lot of the beneficial insects. If there is a crop that is particularly attractive to the grasshoppers, you can experiment with trap cropping.

Birds are also pretty good insect consumers. If you are providing bird seed maybe transition away from that so the birds that are visiting your yard focus on the plentiful insects. If you're in a place that allows chickens (or have friends that would lend them to you), poultry can also knock down a grasshopper infestation (with the caveat that if left unsupervised in a garden they can also damage the plants, but in that border area or the rest of the lawn they could be a creative option).

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