Gardening: Control Grasshoppers Naturally

I’m hearing a lot of complaints about grasshoppers. They’re munching away in my garden, too. There are a few things that we can do to control them.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Pacific Northwest gardener Paul Gautschi’s “Back to Eden” method of gardening. Gautschi’s gardening philosophy involves emulating God’s creation to our benefit. For example, Gautschi says we should emulate the forest in our gardens. In the forest, which are Earth’s most productive and diverse “gardens,” trees shed their leaves year after year. Trees fall down and decay. This all adds organic matter to the soil. A healthy forest does not need fertilizer or other inputs.

Likewise, Gautschi recommends mulching bare soil in our gardens with wood chips to copy the action of leaves and trees falling and decomposing on the forest floor.

In regards to pests like grasshoppers, I try to think like Gautschi. The grasshopper’s natural predators are birds. Creating habitat for birds can help reduce grasshopper pressure. Of course, birds might also become a pest for some of our crops. But I think the idea is to strike a balance.

Cardinals, blue jays, robins, sparrows and crows are among the bird species with a voracious appetite for grasshoppers. Bird houses might draw in some birds. Most birds can find a home. Water is what they lack the most. A bird bath or bird watering stations will attract these winged beauties to your garden.

Providing birds with water will also keep them from pecking tomatoes and other soft fruit. Oftentimes when you notice bird damage on tomatoes, it’s because the birds were thirsty.

If you raise chickens or guineas, let them loose in your garden. They are very effective at controlling grasshoppers. Chickens and guineas can damage your plants as well. In the past when I raised chickens, I found that if I let them graze in the garden all day long, they would start pecking at certain crops, especially leafy greens. If I limited their time in the garden to an hour or two, they seemed to stay more interested in chasing grasshoppers and other insects.

Grasshoppers require bare soil to lay eggs. Mulching can help reduce the number of eggs they lay. It’s also good to keep the grass mowed around the garden to limit their food supply. But don’t make a habit of feed-eating around fence posts and under fences down to the soil. I’ve read that grasshoppers like to lay eggs in those places. It may be better to allow the grass to grow tall in those areas, even if it looks untidy. You can buy a few organic products that are advertised to control grasshoppers. Last year I used a product called Nolo Bait, which worked well for me. It is a wheat bran product inoculated with an organism called Nosema locustae, which is toxic to grasshoppers but not other insects. Semaspore is another similar product. Both are more effective on young grasshoppers. They don’t do much to the big, older ones. This year, I have had a really hard time finding either of these products (even online) due to the recent boom in organic gardening.

You can also plant a trap crop such as wheat. If you keep the wheat lush and green, the grasshoppers will attack it instead of your veggies and flowers.

If you have other ways of controlling grasshoppers, I’d love to hear about it. Email me at andy@fayettecountyrecord.com.