Control Of Grasshoppers
Categories:
Pests and Diseases of Plants
This county is having trouble with the grasshoppers as are other
counties. Would you kindly inform me what I could do to exterminate them
on my young orchard?
The best thing for grasshoppers is to fix up a lot of poison. This is
made in the proportion of 40 pounds of bran, 2 pounds of molasses and 5
of arsenic, mixed together as a mash. They will take this wherever they
find it, even when nice green leave
are close by, but it has to be kept
moist. Grasshoppers can also be reduced by driving a "hopper doser" over
ground where they are. This is made somewhat like a Fresno scraper, but
is much longer and the bottom is covered with crude oil. When disturbed
the hoppers jump up and fall into the oil. Besides the poison, you
should also protect the trunk of the tree to prevent the hoppers from
climbing up it. This can be done by applying tree tanglefoot, or putting
on one of the tree guards that prevent climbing insects from passing up
to the leaves. The combination of poison and tree guards will give you
about all the protection you need.