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Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers

Family Acrididae

Insectalso: Locusts

Big, jumping, leaf-chewing insects that can move into a garden in waves during hot, dry summers and strip plants fast. Most years a few grasshoppers do little harm, but in outbreak years, often after dry springs, they arrive from surrounding grassland and can devour leaves, flowers, and whole seedlings.

🔎 How to spot it

Adults are large, one to two inches long, in brown, green, or gray, with powerful hind legs for jumping and, in many species, wings for flight. They have short antennae and chewing mouthparts. Look for large, irregular chunks bitten from leaf edges and flowers, ragged defoliation that worsens through summer, and the insects themselves springing away as you approach. Common species include the differential, two-striped, and redlegged grasshoppers.

🥀 Damage it causes

Grasshoppers chew large sections out of leaves and flowers and can devour entire young plants, favoring lettuce, beans, corn, carrots, onions, and many annual flowers while mostly leaving squash and tomato alone. Damage builds through the season as the insects grow, and in outbreak years a hungry migration can defoliate a planting in days.

🛡️ Prevent it

Protect valued plants with floating row cover or, since grasshoppers chew through cloth, metal window screening over hoops. Keep the garden edges mowed and clear of the tall, weedy grass where they lay eggs and develop, or instead leave a green border of grass or tall plants around the garden to trap and divert them away from crops, never letting that border dry out. Encourage birds and other natural enemies.

🧯 If it is already here

Handpick and drop them in soapy water in the cool of early morning when they are sluggish. Organic baits containing the microbe Nosema locustae work best while grasshoppers are still small and young. Spraying is largely ineffective because the insects are big, mobile, and constantly reinvading, and it harms pollinators and beneficials. Wet weather helps by spreading a natural grasshopper-killing fungus.

💡 Good to know

Grasshopper problems track the weather: dry years favor big populations, while cool, wet springs promote diseases that knock them back. Because adults fly and hop in from surrounding land, garden-only controls rarely stop a true outbreak, so timing controls against the young nymphs in nearby breeding grounds matters most. They lay eggs in undisturbed soil in late summer that hatch the following spring.

🌱 Plants it attacks

714 plants in the library can be attacked by this pest

Acorn SquashAdirondack Blue PotatoAdzuki BeanAfrican Blue BasilAfrican MarigoldAgapanthusAgeratumAgrimonyAji Amarillo Pepper🍓Albion StrawberryAlice du Pont Mandevilla🥔All Blue PotatoAlmondAloe VeraAmbrosia CornAmerican BasswoodAmerican Beauty Dragon FruitAmerican BeechAmerican PersimmonAmethyst Falls WisteriaAmish Paste TomatoAnaheim PepperAnemoneAngelique TulipAngeloniaAniseAnise HyssopAnjou PearAnnabelle Smooth HydrangeaAnnual VincaApeldoorn TulipApple MintApril Tryst CamelliaArbequina OliveArizona Sun Blanket FlowerArkin CarambolaArmenian CucumberAroniaArp RosemaryArugulaAshwagandhaAsian PearAsian PersimmonAtemoyaAtlantic Giant Pumpkin🥕Atomic Red CarrotAucubaAugust Beauty GardeniaAunt Molly's Ground CherryAutumn Joy SedumAvocadoBachelor's ButtonBalsam FirBalsam PoplarBanana PepperBarbara Karst BougainvilleaBartlett PearBay LaurelBayberryBeach PlumBeauregard Sweet PotatoBecky Shasta DaisyBee Balm🍅Beefmaster TomatoBenarys Giant ZinniaBengal Tiger CannaBetter Boy Tomato🥬Bibb Lettuce🍅Big Beef TomatoBig Boy TomatoBilberryBing CherryBitter MelonBlack BeanBlack Beauty EggplantBlack Beauty ZucchiniBlack Beluga LentilBlack Cherry TomatoBlack CrowberryBlack Currant🍉Black Diamond WatermelonBlack Kabouli ChickpeaBlack Krim TomatoBlack RaspberryBlack Sapote🥬Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce🥕Black Spanish RadishBlack Tartarian CherryBlack WalnutBlack-Eyed PeaBlack-eyed Susan VineBlood OrangeBloomsdale SpinachBlue Bird DelphiniumBlue Bird Rose of SharonBlue FescueBlue Lake Green BeanBluecrop BlueberryBocking 14 ComfreyBok Choy

For educational and informational purposes only. Pest control advice is general guidance drawn from university cooperative extension sources; always identify a pest positively and read and follow the label on any product before use, especially around food crops, children, and pets.