Hi Plantermunn!

I hope the guineas hang around and eat every grasshopper that has hatched at your place! Did you know one adult guinea can eat 2 lbs. of grasshoppers a day?

I lock up my guineas in the chicken coop at night because we have so much wildlife hanging around wanting to eat them. Every now and then, though, they will rebel and stay outside, roosting high in the trees. When that happens, an owl will usually get at least one.

We've had as many as 20 guineas at one time. Right now we have 7 and we have some eggs, of which a couple have already hatched.

Our guineas patrol our 14.4 acreas, a good deal of our next door neighbors' places (a 45 acre place on our south side and a 10 acre place on our north) and cross the street daily to patrol the roadside ditch area that runs alongside the horse ranch across the street.

Luckily our neighbors don't mind if the guineas come "hunting" on their property! It's a good thing, 'cause guineas tend to do as they please. If your neighbor's guineas won't stay at your place and eat, maybe you need to get some of your own????

I love my guineas.

Dawn

Well the Guinnies went home. I would be happy if they just made a pass through the yard every day.
I am afraid if I get guinnies now they would just start running with his.
I have not seen another hopper since I put out the nolo bait. But I an sure they aren't far off.
Last year he had a trio of silver phesants loose. I threw them a little feed every day. I was hopeing to find the nest when they laid. But no luck.

I think that Nolo Bait is the next best thing to having guineas around to eat the hoppers.

When I first started using it, I didn't see results as fast as I liked, but after a couple of years I found we had 90% less grasshoppers than our neighbors. That holds true most years.

Since your neighbor's guineas free-range I bet they will help get rid of any hoppers that migrate over to your place.

I've never seen silver pheasant but I bet they are lovely.

One of our neighbors had a free-ranging peacock, but some four-legged critter got it.

Do you ever see wild turkeys? Some years I see a lot, some years I see a few. This year I've only seen one.

I can vouch for the nolo bait and guineas. When I used to garden in WN Oklahoma, we tried the nolo for two years straight and then went to a combination of nolo and guineas. Between the two, we had many fewer problems with grasshoppers and didn't have to spray like our neighbors did. Never felt good abot the thought of eating veggies from my own organic garden that had been oversprayed with DDT like stuff.

OKC1: You know, I have talked myself blue in the face, trying to get some of the farmers/ranchers around me to try Nolo Bait. They'd rather stick with chemicals that aren't even that effective on the grasshoppers! I have noticed the last 5 or 6 years that Nolo Bait is becoming easier to find in the stores, so guess that is progress.

I have seven baby guineas in a brooder in my guest room. Once they are large enough, I'll move them to the chicken coop. My poor guest room....it was full of plant shelves, plant lights and seedlings from Jan.-Mar. and now it is a bird nursery! We did manage to squeeze in one weekend guest in between the time the plants were moved outside and the baby birds were moved in!

Those of us who have had success with Nolo Bait and with guineas have to continue recommending them and speading the word! They are by far more effective than anything used in the "chemical world". Guineas have (finally) become so popular in Texas that the hatcheries there sell out by early June, and sometimes earlier than that!

Dawn

What is Nolo Bait? Never heard of it. We don't have much of a grasshopper problem here in Minnesota.

Hi Flicka 85:

Don't let our talk of grasshoppers scare you off from moving to Oklahoma! The grasshopper infestations run in roughly seven-year cycles and tend to peak during drought periods. Some years they are a horrible problem and will eat EVERYTHING living before they begin munching on cotton throw rugs on your porch or even on fiberglass window screens. Some years they are hardly a problem at all. The more rural and "wild" the area you move to, the greater a chance you'll have a problem with them.

Nolo Bait is an organic pesticide that kills grasshoppers and their relatives, like crickets. It consists of wheat bran flakes infested with a protozoa called Nosema Locuste. "Nolo Bait" is just one brand name under which it is sold. Other brand names that I can think of off the top of my head are "Grasshopper Attack" and "Semasphore". You can buy the product at some nurseries or feed stores. Every now and then I will see the "Grasshopper Attack" product in a more mainstream store like Wal-Mart, but not often. It is also available via the internet from companies like Planet Natural that sell organic products.

You spread the baited product on your yard or acreage (at a rate of 1 pound per acre). It is perfectly safe for use around vegetable gardens, fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. as it only affects the grasshopper family. The grasshoppers eat it, then get infected by the protozoa and die. The dead grasshoppers are then cannabilized by other grasshoppers who eat them, get infected and die. It is not an "instant kill" product. It will take about 2-4 weeks for you to see good results if you already have a VERY SEVERE infestation. If it is just a mild grasshopper year, you may notice results much sooner.

We moved to Oklahoma during a drought. This area was probably in year 2 or 3 of the severe part of the grasshopper cycle because we'd been having the same grasshopper problem/drought in Texas. Grasshoppers that year would eat the leaves, bark and peaches off the peach trees, so you had bare, stripped trees with peach pits hanging from them! It was awful.

Farmers/ranchers/residents around us (I am in a very rural area) sprayed every chemical pesticide known to mankind, both the over-the-counter stuff we could all buy, and the stronger stuff you can only purchase and use if you have a pesticide applicator's license. They made only a small dent in the grasshopper population and succeeded in killing lots of birds, toads, etc.

We used Nolo Bait and also bought chickens and guineas that are allowed to free-range during the day-time. I used Nolo Bait for just a couple of years, and since then my poultry keep the migrating hoppers that come in later in the summer under control. They also eat the grasshoppers on my 14 acres as soon as they hatch, so I don't even buy Nolo Bait anymore.

I believe Nolo Bait has a residual effect and remains active in your soil after you have spread it around. (That's my opinion. I don't know if it is backed up by any scientific research!!!)

I thought last year was a "good" grasshopper year because we didn't have any grasshoppers. Then my neighbors started complaining about all the grasshoppers they had. I was astonished to go to their homes and see hoppers everywhere. I believe this indicates we are going back into the heavier part of the so-called 7-year cycle. I don't even know if the 7-year cycle is reality or myth, but it seems like the populations cycle up and down in roughly a 7-year pattern.

If this ends up being a drought year as it seems like it might, then we could have major grasshopper problems.

The best time to spread Nolo Bait is when the hoppers are in the smaller instars, roughly 1/4" to 1/2" in size, which is usually in the March-May time frame, depending on when they start hatching out. I think that the daytime temps have to reach a certain level before the hoppers will eat the bait and be infected, but I don't remember what that temp is. I know that the hotter it gets, the less effective Nolo Bait is.

I am in very far south-central Oklahoma, only a few miles from the Texas border, so our grasshoppper hatch sometimes begins in February. I imagine the hatch starts a little later the further north you go up into Oklahoma. Because we have a very long growing season, we often have successive hatches of grasshoppers. Some years it seems like new ones hatch every few weeks all summer long up until about September. This is where guineas come in handy. They will eat the little ones as soon as they hatch in the summer.

Grasshoppers sound worse than they are most year, because Nolo Bait and similar products really do work well to contain them and limit their damage. Not all grasshopppers will die after eating Nosema Locuste, but those that live will be sickly and eat roughly 75% less, according to research studies.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Dawn

I always have a few grasshoppers, but I have to mention the most astounding grasshopper I have ever seen. He is green and black and always roosts on my Texas Star hibiscus. He is huge - about 4" long. Have any clue as to what kind of grasshopper is this?

Susan

PlanterMunn.... How did the Silver pheasants do as free range birds? I have 32 acres and next year intend to let loose a few dozen to see what happens.

Terry

Hmm. Grasshoppers. Well, I didn't know about THAT when I told Leif to take the job in Oklahoma. The higher-ups at the company never mentioned grasshoppers. Of course, they didn't mention tornadoes either. When I said, "Please tell we aren't smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley here," they kind of looked at their shoes, cleared their throats, and mumbled something.

Thanks, Dawn, for the great explanation about controlling them. (Grasshoppers, not tornadoes.) I guess that means it's okay for me to move there after all. Which, by the way, will be on January 6th! I can hardly wait.

Jennifer

Susanlynne48,

I don't know the name of that black and yellow grasshopper variety, but I've seen lots of them down in Mexico. There, they generally live in groups, hanging out in bushes.

George
Tahlequah, OK