Krista,

First of all, I hope that none of us here ever will judge another person based on their pest control choices. We have some die-hard organic gardeners here, some almost completely organic gardeners here, and plenty of people who use synthetic products and never will be organic, as well as some folks who use organics most of the time, but don't hesitate to use a synthetic solution if the organic one isn't working. It is a big world and there's room for all kinds of gardening philosophies and methods. While I will choose the organic route 98 or 99 times out of 100, every now and then there is a pest issue for which the organic world does not offer a viable solution. For me, grasshoppers are that 1 out of 100 time when I'll chose a synthetic product.

If you'll read my response on the thread (linked above by Erod) to Mark's question in 2011 (and I suspect maybe you found that and read it before you posted this question), then you know how I found EcoBran and why I decided to buy it and use it.

I don't use it often, but when I have used it, I felt like I definitely saw a decrease in grasshopper activity. Did all the hoppers go away? No, and they never will. They are highly mobile and travel easily and in great hordes, so our goal has to be merely to limit their numbers in our gardens because we'll never get rid of all of them.

When I have used it, I wore disposable medical-type latex or nitrile gloves, scattered it lightly over the plants that grasshoppers were damaging, and then put the container of EcoBran back on the shelf and threw the disposable gloves in the trash.

In my garden, they often show up first on lemon balm and catmint. If I see heavy damage on those plants, I scatter the EcoBran on them and try to kill the hoppers that way. I did that about 3 weeks ago and it seemed to make a difference. Then it rained and rained and rained and suddenly we had grasshoppers all over the garden, but most of the damage was being done to potato plants, so I scattered the EcoBran over those plants on Friday. Hopefully the hoppers found it and ate it Friday, because it rained hard on Friday night.

I don't put it on the ground or on the mulch, only on the foliage because that is where I observe hoppers sitting and eating. It doesn't harm the beneficial insects because they eat meat (other insects). It only harms the leaf-eating insects that actually ingest the product, which is wheat bran infused with 2% Sevin.

If I had your issue, I'd scatter it in a band 6 to 8 feet wide along the property line so that the grasshoppers hopefully would find it and eat it on their way to the garden. And, of course, I'd scatter it on the plants in the garden that the grasshoppers are targeting.

My standard grasshopper plan is that I use Semaspore or Nolo Bait in March through early May while the hoppers are small and the temperatures are milder. Once the hoppers are bigger and the temperatures are higher, it is not as effective. Some years that is all I have to do. Occasionally, though, the hoppers arrive in huge numbers, and the hotter it gets, the more of them there are. That's when I get out the EcoBran.

Do I feel guilty about using a 2% Sevin product? Not as much as you'd think. I think it is the best ecological choice in this circumstance and would prefer using it to spraying with a liquid Sevin product, for example. This bait only affects the plant-eating pests that ingest it. When I have to use any pest control method, whether organic or synthetic in origin, I try to target exactly the problem pest on exactly the plants they are attacking. I don't treat the whole garden, for example, if only the potato plants have the problem.

I hope this helps. If you have more questions, ask away.

Once again, I hope no one judges you. You have every right to use whatever method you think is necessary to control the pests that threaten your plants.

If someone is going to judge me because I chose to occasionally use a synthetic pesticide, let them judge me all they want. That kind of judgemental person is someone whose opinion wouldn't matter to me anyway.

I live in a county filled with grassland mostly used as rangeland. To think that I could have a little green Garden of Eden here in June through August when the grasslands for thousands of acres on all sides of us are dry and brown and NOT have grasshopper issues is just ludicrous. I'd love to live in an area where I only see a grasshopper here and there randomly over the summer, but that isn't my reality. In a perfect world, maybe I could be 100% organic, but instead I settle for being about 99% organic. It works for me.

One encouraging word: grasshopper populations cycle up and down. They tend to go up in hotter, drier years and cycle back down after wetter years. Sometimes, it is a matter of when it is wet. Often, you see the effect of a wet spring, but not for many months or not until the next year. Many of the grasshoppers that have hatched out and plagued us this year are from eggs laid in the ground last fall. We won't know until next spring if this year's wet spring will knock back their population a lot. They often stay at an up part of the population cycle for several years, and then cycle back down to lower numbers, so you likely won't have this much trouble with them every year.

Good luck and I hope it works for you.

Finally, if you check around, you can find a recipe to make your own grasshopper-killing bait. I've linked one such recipe below. If you read further down on the linked page below the bait recipe, you'll find an interesting recipe for grasshopper fritters. I like to cook, but this is one recipe I don't intend to make for dinner anytime soon....or any time ever. : )

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: A Fun Recipe For Killing Grasshoppers