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okievegan

Intact grasshopper corpses

okievegan
11 years ago

Okay, the zombie wasps don't get credit for the massive grasshopper graveyard that is my backyard. I know this because I've never seen one with its brains scooped out.

However, I was wondering why I was not having a major issue with grasshoppers like everyone else seems to be having. I don't spray anything at all, not even Neem oil, though that is more because it stinks so much than because I have any qualms against causing the painful deaths of my fellow vegan (insects).

Then I noticed a grasshopper on one of my castor bean plants. I thought back and realized I hadn't needed to pluck any hungry critters off of any of the castor beans...not even blister beetles and they seem to eat everything. The castor beans have virtually no insect damage of any kind without thanks to my interference. How was this possible?

Then I started to think about all the grasshopper corpses I kept coming across. So I got online and did some searching, and while no one seems to really agree on whether or not grasshoppers die after chewing on castor bean leaves, I think it's true for my backyard.

I plan to plant more castor beans next year and scatter them throughout my herb garden as well. Heck, I might outline my property with them!

On a different note, are grasshopper corpses good for the soil? Should I be conducting burials or just leaving them for the birds to find?

Comments (10)

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Are you in a rural area surrounded by acres of grassland? A lot of us who are having the heavy grasshopper infestations are in very rural areas with lots of rangeland, and grasshoppers heavily infest rangeland and then move into the yards and gardens of rural residents as the rangeland dries up. That's the likely explanation, but there are others. I do know that when I lived in a suburban neighborhood, I didn't see 20 grasshoppers a summer. Now I can see that many and more just walking down the driveway to the mailbox.

    Grasshoppers are not always the same everywhere at the same concentration, not even within a county. It took me years to understand this about my own county, and sometimes it still surprises me. While at a grassfire/brushfire southwest of Thackerville a couple of months ago, only about 5 or 6 miles south of my house, I saw huge numbers of grasshoppers in May. At that time, we didn't have many at our house at all. Then, later on, while at another brushfire less than a half-mile from our house in early June (if my memory of the date is correct), I saw huge numbers of grasshoppers on that ranch. It sent a chill up my spine, and I knew they were headed our way. Our grasshopper population zoomed about a month after I saw them just down the road. They're bad, but they aren't as bad as they were last year, and they're not even anywhere close to being as bad as they were in 2003. Last year they probably were three times as bad at the western end of our county as they were in the central part where I live. It amazes me to see the variation within a relatively small area.

    It could be you had lower levels last year so there weren't a lot of eggs laid and hatching. If there's not sufficient green vegetation where you live (not talking about your property but about the general area over thousands of acres), the migrating ones could bypass y'all and head for someplace greener.

    It could be you have lots of birds there that feast on hoppers.

    It could be that the grasshopper disease Nosema locuste exists on your property and has kept the numbers down.

    There's lots of possibilities. If you had a wet winter, that could have harmed some of the hopper eggs, or if it was pretty cold for a while.

    For several years, I put out Nosema locuste, an organic biological control for hoppers, every April and May. It really knocked back the population, and eventually I stopped putting it out except in the veggie garden. Despite that, for years the grasshopper population has been much lower at our house than at the homes of some of our close neighbors. I didn't notice that myself--but my ranching neighbors did. They'd stop by and ask why our bar ditch wasn't full of grasshoppers like theirs was. That would make me watch as we drove by their property, and sure enough as we drove by, a big cloud of grasshoppers would rise up from the bar ditch and fly into the fields. The answer had to be that by then we had a well-established population of Nosema locuste on our property and it was keeping our population in check. Well, that and the chickens and guineas. The thing about Nosema locuste is that often you see better results the second year and beyond as the disease spreads from hopper to hopper, especially when the grasshoppers cannibalize the carcasses of dead grasshoppers.

    Castor beans may or may not be poisonous to hoppers or anything else. When I've grown them, they largely have been damaged less than anything else, but they do get eaten---including being nibbled by deer. In general, insects and animals avoid foods that taste unpleasant or harm them, but in desperation they sometimes will eat plants that they otherwise avoid.

    I would leave the corpses unless they become a problem. Some people say they stink, but I have not really noticed that. Crickets, on the other hand, really do smell bad when you let the corpses pile up. If, by chance, your hoppers are being killed by Nosema locuste, then every time a lively little active grasshopper eats a dead grasshopper corpse, you have disease and death spreading among the grasshopper population, which is a good thing. I never see grasshopper corpses lying around for long. Usually the red harvester ants and other insects haul them off. If you have a well-balanced mix of insects on your property, the dead bugs don't pile up for long. They get devoured or used by other bugs in some way. Otherwise, some of us here in southern OK would have mountains of grasshopper corpses on our property.

    Dawn

  • OklaMoni
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn, she lives in a lovely addition bordering a vacant lot at the back of her house.

    But at this time, they are clearing the property... which aggravates her to pieces because of the noise.

    We haven't found out yet, what will go in there.

    Moni (the mom)

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I watched something (new to me) this morning. I was out planting 5 rows of pinkeye purple hulls and decided to check on my evergreen winter onions and saw a grasshopper kicking free of his old skin, or at least that is what it looked like. By the time I went back into the house to get the camera the hopper had moved down the stem a couple of inches. I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching wildlife.

    Larry

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Moni, I knew that she's your daughter, but am not sure who else knows so it likely is good you mentioned it.

    Oh dear, I hate to hear they are clearing the lot. I hope something "nice" goes in there and not something that she wouldn't have chosen as a neighbor.

    When a guy with a dozer cleared off most of the underbrush at the ranch across the road from us about 12 or 13 years ago, we got snakes, field mice, and other critters galore in huge numbers--but they were clearing probably 80 acres, and all those living things have to go somewhere.

    Larry, That's how they grow. See there, you are feeding them so well that they are getting bigger and bigger. I think they go through at least 5 instars, molting the old skin each time.

    My favorite grasshopper-watching activity is watching birds eat grasshoppers. : ) I do like watching wildlife but grasshoppers are not my favorite wildlife to watch. We used to have a dog who'd chase grasshoppers, catch them and eat them. Now that was one useful dog!

    Dawn

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn, I have a Mockingbird that I think has adopted me, it seems to go everywhere I go. If I am digging in the garden it is there for a worm, If I go from one garden to the other it wants to eat the crickets or grasshoppers that I flush out. Heaven knows it does not need my help, insects are everywhere. Maybe it thinks I need the extra protection.

    Larry

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Larry,

    I think that maybe mockingbirds get attached to a specific human being. We had one here for several years who followed me around all day long. I know it was the same bird because for years it sat in exactly the exact same spots on tree limbs, the garden fence and the arbor. A random bird here or there could not have chosen the exact same spots every time unknowingly. Even when I put the dogs on a leash and walked them, the mockingbird went along. So, I think you have a new friend.

    Mine learned to imitate the ring tone on my cell phone. That bird has been gone for 2 or 3 years now, and I miss it, but there's a new one that is starting to hang around me a lot.

    Dawn

  • chickencoupe
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What?! They're carnivorous, TOO? Yeesh. I appreciate all this information. We live under "city limits" but have a fairly large property flanked by open acres while all other residences have meager yards. I dread having a flourishing garden that might attract all the local hoppers.

    Brain-eating carnivores? Wow.

    Larry, I have a local mockingbird that runs off all others - especially Mr. Robin who was my garden buddy. Mr. Robin would come within three feet of where I planted my butt to dig ready to snatch up the grub worms I tossed his way. He was considerate, too, you see. When the planting box was only but seeded I shewed him away lest he find the seeds. He never returned except when I parked to dig somewhere. Then, the mockingbird decided to befriend me after running off Mr. Robin. I wouldn't mind but he's so LOUD and annoying even mimicking the dog's whining which is grating to the nerves. I want Mr. Robin back lol.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mockingbirds are really territorial. They're one of the few birds we have here that attack the cats like blue jays do--aggressively dive-bombing them if they think the cats are too close.

    Bon, if your Mocker is around at tomato-planting time, put something over the tomatoes to protect them. Mockingbirds, for reasons I do not understand, like to snip off the tomato plants right at the soil line. They can take out a whole planting in one day. I've noticed that if I cage the plants the very day I plant them, the mockingbirds leave them alone even though they could easily get through the tomato cage.

    Dawn

  • chickencoupe
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh great. Thanks, I'll remember that.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You're welcome. The mockingbird-tomato connection is something I learned about here on GardenWeb from a gentleman named Bill P., now deceased, who posted as GoneFishin'. They were getting his plants for a couple of years and he'd post photos of the nipped-off plants and everyone would try to figure out what was causing it. Finally he figured out it was mockingbirds by more or less observing them in the act. Then, when it happened here, given the fact that I have companion mockingbirds who think the garden is theirs, I knew right away what it was and covered up the rest of my plants to save them.