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Show 6 - HOPPING “MES - JULY 1993 More TRIASSIC PARK effective. from Page 1. - TANGLEFOOT, a commercial they also will relish your garden and must be watched and cared for. _ product (mixture of pine gums and waxes), used to protect young trees after harvest can give you an edge on and colors, but they have chomping and hopping in common. I wondered if they might be locusts or the dreaded Mormon crickets that devastated settlers’ crops in 1848. But in reading, I discovered that these terms describe a variation in hopper life brought on by overcrowding in an area which can no longer provide them with enough food, also known as the gregarious phase. Normally these creatures exist in what is termed a solitary phase, when they live singly, well camouflaged by color and quite sluggish. However, when their numbers - TILLING the garden in the fall right from insects, also seems to work when next year’s hatch. This makes the applied to the tree’s trunk (three feet of ground unattractive for egg laying and bare trunk between ground and foliage) or spread on boards and placed in infested areas. Hoppers become entangled in the glue-like substance. - GRASSHOPPER SPORE can work very well and is non-toxic to humans, plants, animals, and other insects. But exposes the eggs already deposited. ' The eggs are buried in late summer and into the fall, about 3 inches deep. Plow under weedy margins of fields and unless neighbors organize a joint attack in your area, it is likely that hoppers many new hatchlings from surfacing. from beyond your fence will soon replace those you’ve destroyed. During the valley infestation of ’81, upper AND GROUND BEETLES lay eggs in increase dramatically due to a few Valley neighbors did get organized. favorable seasons, so that the popula- They ordered massive quantities of the garden and replace with perennial grass. - COMPOST OR MULCH will keep . BEE FLIES, BLISTER BEETLES, soil close to grasshopper egg pods or in them. These larvae then consume the hopper eggs, sometimes 40 to 60%! Be kind to these creatures, as some also tion is larger than the food supply, the spore, mixed it in a cement mixer with destroy Gypsy moth larvae, cutworms, result can be a swarm of locusts. It is like a large scale panic. A hopper in bran and molasses, and decimated the canker worms. The weeds on my lot have pro- this state becomes active, nervous, and irritable. On a warm, dry day he will begin to fly about (which raises his body temperature) and a frenzy of swarming begins. The swarm will stop only when the environment changes, as with a temperature drop, rain, or nightfall. It must have been a miraculous sight to see those flocks of gulls arrive to devour that swarm of crickets. Castle Valley offers an ideal hopper habitat, with our warm, dry days and our tenderly nurtured fields and gardens. There are four to nine nymphal stages in a hopper’s life, depending on the type, and it is in their youth they must be controlled, since a mature hopper can lay up to 400 eggs three times a-year. (Eggs hatch in six to eight months.) Also, adult grasshoppers are much less susceptible to biological and chemical controls. There are various methods of fighting them, though a combination of methods seems to be most successful. hoppers. - They also rigged TRAPS for the mature hoppers, pushed on mowers, vided for some experimentation. This tractors, or set up in highly infested areas. These traps were built by using a year we eliminated more weeds than in other years, but didn’t stop to consider that we were also destroying a big long, shallow basin (two to four feet grasshopper grazing area. Other wide) filled with water and oil, to which a frame of PVC or steel tubing was attached. This supported a sheet of metal or hard plastic (something the hoppers could not grip). As the contraption moved through the field, the grasshoppers would jump, hit the sheet, and fall into the basin where the summers they have seemed quite content to stay in the tall grasses nibbling the lamb’s quarters, mallow, and orchard and cheat grasses. Now, by necessity, they have transferred their operations into our garden. In the future I will allow strategic weed plots, oil would trap them. (If only vegetable Living and learning. Yet good fortune is mine in other ways. Though their mating calls echo throughout the night, the grasshopper challenge doesn’t dishearten me, for when I wake in the morning I find much beauty survives—healthy wild primroses and sunflowers shining at me. —Jil Kulander Note: My thanks to Mayor John Groo for his paper on grasshopper control in CV. Call him ifyou’d like a a copy. oil is used, a fine grasshopper mash can then be fed to your poultry.) A simpler trap can be made with just molasses and water in a jar which is then set into the soil in the garden. - POULTRY seem to be one of the more popular and successful means of controlling infestations. Turkeys, Guineas, and chickens—like hawks, meadowlarks, crows, and most other birds—relish the protein. However, separate from my garden. In a small garden, HOTCAPS OR REMAY fabric (available from Castle Canyon Nursery here in the valley) over your plants will protect them. For the rest of your land, there are other methods to try: - SABADILLA POWDER, an organic mixture of roots and flowers, has been used since Egyptian times to control locust plagues. It can be applied either as a powder or spray. Because it is toxic to bees and fish as well, it is best used in a poison bait form. - A SPRAY made with crushed hot peppers, soap, and water is said to be Castle Valley Inn For the best rest out west. A Bed and Breakfast 801 -259—601 2 En'c Thomson & Lynn Forbes Thomson CVSR 2602, Moab, Utah 84532 |
