grasshopper disease

[grassfarmer]

Woke up to an apparent miracle this morning on the grasshopper front. This immediate area has been really bad for hoppers this year - treated some with eco-bran and got maybe a 20% kill, more hatched and were totally unaffected by the recent rains. There are a big number of flying ones as well as youngsters and they were just starting to make a mark on the grass. This morning probably 40% are dead, clutching to the tops of tall grass plants. I looked on the internet and see that these are classic symptoms of entomophaga fungus. The wonders of nature !!, let's hope they are all gone by the end of the week.

[cakadu]

Whatever kills them off is a good thing. We didn't see too many until this last hot spell. They're certainly a lot more noticeable now, so there must have been more of a hatch. Prior to this they weren't too bad.

I guess we can be thankful for the cool wet conditions otherwise they would likely have been much worse than what they are at present.

[cowman]

You know I can't even find a darned grasshopper around? There were a few little ones around earlier but they seemed to have all disappeared. I am also sort of amazed by the lack of mosquitoes. It has been fairly wet this year and I thought we'd have a population explosion but it hasn't happened...at least not yet!
Apparently right about now is the time the "West Nile Mosquito" really gets active so get out the Off and protect yourself!

[grassfarmer]

For whatever reason the fungus was a one day wonder, i've seen no more dead hoppers since. Perhaps it was the high humidity combined with the high temps that did the trick? We have had another inch of rain in the last couple of days so maybe if it dries up and heats up again we will see more deaths. We have also had an explosion of mozzies in the last three days.

[egreenhough]

There is a good explanation of the fungal disease at the following website hosted by Dan Johnson of the University of Lethbridge - look close to the bottom of the page

http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/htm/update04.htm

Earl