Picture 1: the damage,... Picture 2: mug shot of presumed culprit (after a generous hose shower).
Is there any way to keep these particular voracious hoppers from eating these blossoms?
My neighbor squashes them, but I'm not doing that ~ really would rather just discourage or perhaps relocate?
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Deb
Update: I relocated him to an empty lot behind our house. Just hoping he doesn't find his way back to my plants. :)
Still - if there is anything that repels these guys, please let me know.
Thanks!
That one sure looks like lubber grasshopper and the only place I have ever seen them, north of FL, is at Brookgreen. They can get huge. GOod luck.
DebinSC, by the time summer is over you will hate these things with a seething passion!! They will be HUGE. They will CHASE you, BARKING and SPITTING at you as you run!
Each female will deposit egg cases and next spring you will have swarms of them on your property. I have sprayed with sevin, finally gave up, they more or less localize and seems your property has been chosen. If I were your neighbor who was the recipient of your relocations, well, let's just say, next year I would not be too happy.
Summer before last, I thought animals were eating my tomatoes, amaryllis bulbs, etc overnight, until I discovered the landlubbers in action on a couple of partially devoured items!
You would be horrified by my method of dealing (ineffectively) the adults (which you will have NO PROBLEM seeing.) I want so badly to use a nondiscriminating spray all over my property but I need my other insect friends too badly, to do something that stupid.
Aren't I the bearer of good news and glad tidings? Sorry, can you tell I am at my wits end?
Oh,one more thing, if you found one there are hundreds more lurking in the growth around your property,cause egg cases contain large quantities of eggs and they all seem to hatch and survive!
This message was edited Jun 18, 2013 1:53 AM
There was one on the side of my car in the Harris Teeter Parking Lot yesterday!
"They will be HUGE. They will CHASE you, BARKING and SPITTING at you as you run!" LOL - really?
Gessieviolet, I SO understand your frustration! Fortunately - so far at least - there are only a handful of them, unless another generation hatches. (No!!)
The one I relocated went to a large empty lot with lots of wild food - so I hope no neighbors will end up with him. :)
I have experienced an invasion of them before but that was several years ago. Fortunately, I don't have veggies to protect this time so I'll try and wait them out as long as I can without having to deal with them "with extreme prejudice". ;-> ...... With apologies to my neighbor's tomatoes. :O
I know it's a little late, but something to consider for the 2014 season. Lots of birds love to eat hoppers. Do you have anything near this area that will attract birds. Bird houses, bird baths, even a feeder, plants or bushes that bear berries. Birds will eat seed, but still look for their live food too, especially when it's so readily available. Bluebirds eat grasshoppers for example. Check out what birds in your area eat hoppers and what will attract them. Also many spiders will catch them in their webs, if you leave some up. I don't knock down spider webs unless they are somewhere I would walk into them.(Yuk!)
Best bet, attract birds. They can be a gardeners best friend (if you don't mind sharing your berries or veggies). I think I'd rather share with birds than the hoppers.
spinosad (organic) sprayed on the plants will deter, if not outright kill, them. it is not listed on the bottle as being for lubbers, but i read an article about it online and tried it. it works and i use it every year on any plant susceptible to lubbers.
i can't get a bird within 50 miles to even look at one of these nasty things. even fire ants won't eat them after they're dead.....
LOL
Thanks, Rebloomer, I have lots of birds, so one hopes they eat their share! Tracks, thanks for the info. I will look into it. :)
Deb
Deb, research I have done suggest these creatures are poisonous to birds, so they are avoided as food.
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/08/land_of_the_lubber.html
I can not get my chickens to eat them, though I have many birds around in spring when the nymph begin to emerge they show no interest in the nymph either.
http://limitedspacegardening.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/my-garden-nightmare-landlubbers/
Gessieviolet, sorry not to have replied sooner. Feb and Mar were craaaazy
Anyway, thanks for the links. I had begun to suspect they were not a preferred food for birds. So far this season, no babies have emerged, but if so, I'll continue to "relocate" them. :)
DebinSC, according to my picture records I began seeing the nymph about mid May last year.
The earliest photo was dated 5-19 and this one was taken 5-20-13.
I am desparate, already ordered a biological called NOLO that is available for shipment to SC in an attempt to reduce population through infecting the nymph, it will only reduce population this year but hopefully will infect reproduction for NEXT year.
We'll see.
Really! Wow, I didn't know there was anything that would slow them down. I'll be interested to know if the population starts to decline.
I recently came across the picture I took of the one I saw at Brookgreen several years ago. He or she is as long as the brick is wide. That was one ugly bug.
i've heard the NOLO really works well. i'll stick with the spinosad since it works well for me so far!
alice, that was a monster! lol
trackinsand, I have never heard of spinosad til now. I sounds like a product I could use since it has wide application and is harmless to beneficials as long as they don't ingest. Thanks
Looking back over this post, I don't know how I managed to miss your earlier reference.
This message was edited Apr 8, 2014 9:23 PM
gessie, i get mine at ACE hardware. look for Ferti-lome brand borer, cat, leaf miner spray. that's the one to get. it's lots cheaper than the ones that really push the spinosad and it's the same thing. little bottle is concentrated and lasts me a growing season usually.
I suggest you fry them then coat them in Chocolate Could not resist
Lavina
LOL, Lavina. :)
Well, anything fried or chocolate coated would have to be good, right???
Yelp and fried grass hoppers have just enough crunch to be good
Uh oh. 10 or so of these on my Agapanthus. :(
none on mine so far...but i sprayed last week and will continue to spray every three weeks throughout the summer.
Your spraying must be working!
yes, so far it's worked for the past 5 yrs. i hate to think of them becoming immune to the effects so i try not to overdo.
Deb, I just saw this on Jenks Farmer's blog. I have never heard of nolo-bait but it might be worth looking into.
"Chop Them Up?
Devil's Pony? Locust? Georgia Thumper?
The rumor around Athens is that they escaped from UGA.
Once adult, there's not much to do but chop them or feed them to fish or chickens. When the tiny ones emerge in spring you can vacuum them up with a mini-vac or try a bio control called Nolo-bait.
Lucky for us, we don't have them. They LOVE to eat Crinum lilies and would decimate our farm.
They didn't escape, in fact, we moved into their home; they are Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers."
Yup! Thanks, A.
I had never heard of nolo-bait until I started researching these critters. I love "Devil's Pony" by the way. :) I managed to take care of most as they emerged. One did get past me but I know where he lives. LOL. If he gets near my lilies, I will be forced to deal with him. :)
