Hoppers

[grassfarmer]

I was finishing up some electric fencing today and found one area absolutely swarming with young hoppers. This was a lane way allowing cows access to water last summer and was grazed very short. I've moved my hen shack onto it and hope they get to work tomorrow. The number of hoppers was frightening though - is everybody else finding them to?

[les]

seen some today for the first time this year. thousands of them.

[smokey]

Lots of hoppers here too.The 1 1/2" of rain last week didn't slow them down. I'm in the Rimbey Alberta area.

[whiteface]

Thanks for that info, smokey, I'm going to look at a property to purchase next week in the Rimbey area, specifically for hay production and I may have to consider the hoppers in relation the price and/or area to buy hayland. Another friend of mine said that area had a bit of a tough time last year also. Hopefully a good rain next week slows them down.

[grassfarmer]

I'm in the Rimbey area too. Smokey you must be north of town? - we only got 6/10ths rain last week out west. Whiteface, I'm told that hoppers are new to this area - we're not like the Oyen area or anything but they are increasing.
I hit on a new control method last night whilst harrowing a field cows have been on since calving. Because the grass was chewed very short the harrows actually killed about 80% by running over the headland infested area twice. I use a chain harrow towed behind a harrow bar made of truck tires on a wooden beam. I realise this is not an option on longer grass.
I have severe infestation of hoppers on a few limited areas of the farm (mainly watering lanes that were grazed short last year) and think I will need to try control measures before they spread - anyone got experience of the eco-bran product?

[cakadu]

I'm almost afraid to go out and look. So far in doing pasture walks, we haven't seen any evidence - but that doesn't mean they won't start. Maybe we got enough wet and cold to at least slow them down.

The pastures have barely begun to get to where they need to go yet, so I hope we don't see any. In walking the pasture tonight, it looks as though it has almost stalled, so we need more rain yet.

Still, I suppose we should be looking in the areas that were the hardest hit last year. Here's hoping....

[les]

eco-bran worked great here last year.

[whiteface]

I hope you're all getting a good rain today and maybe slow them down.

[nerves]

grassfarmer we used ecoban last year very deadly thousands of them were dead the next day. But not to sure what happens if the wild birds eat the grasshoppers. We will only use it if we have to and only the hot spots. Bring on the rain 1 and a half inches yesterday.

[grassfarmer]

That's interesting nerves, I don't want to spray because of birds and killing other small critters and simplifying the animal/insect/bird communities but ecobran will have the same effect.
We have only very small areas affected, maybe 30-40 acres on a section but the infestations are severe. The hoppers are still small but growing fast and I think the rain is not slowing them up (we had one inch yesterday)I think next week is decision time on the hoppers.

[nerves]

another thing we did last year was fill a land roller up with water and roll the hot spots. Got a lot of them and it didn"t take long to get the roller covered in hopper slime. They were also a little bigger to.

[pandiana]

North of Rimbey, hoppers are already eating emerging grain crop.

[cowman]

You know I've hardly seen a grasshopper around here this spring. There were a few last year but not anymore than normal. And yet I saw places where they were plentiful last year and I've seen a few sites this year where it looks like they could be a problem.
I went out to Saskatchewan in 2002 and the grasshoppers around Hanna were so bad the highway was slippery...had to stop and wash the darn things out of the radiator!

[Joe-2]

About Ecobranon't worry about it doing any harm to birds that may eat the dead hoppers.They could never eat enough hoppers fast enough.In human terms,a 170 lb. man would have to eat a bread bag full of Ecobran in less than an hour for it to even begin to be toxic.An adult grasshopper is dead after eating only 3 or 4 flakes,less than 1 flake will usually kill a newly hatched hopper.
The chemical in Ecobran is carbaryl.It does no harm to most other insects(bees etc).
If you have questions about Ecobran,Neil Wagner at Peacock Industries in Hague SK. is the guy you want to talk to.306-225-4691.

[Joe-2]

I meant to put this in my above post.
Here's the website for Ecobran.
www.grasshoppercontrol.com