I think I have to wave the white flag this year. The grasshoppers won. Despite applying Nosema locustae at the beginning of the season, I couldn’t find more product to keep up with the hatches. It looks like a scene from “Little House on the Prairie” out there right now.  It’s just a matter of saving what I can and planting for the fall.

When the grasshoppers started over a month ago, I thought I would be able to stay ahead of them. I applied the Nosema as soon as I started noticing those half inch long nymphs, but I wish I could have found more bait. It appears the supply chain issue that has plagued the country also affected the production of the bait.

Keeping it covered

At first it wasn’t too bad. They were annoying but not terribly destructive, oddly focusing on things like my rhubarb. The numbers grew exponentially and they stripped plants nearly overnight. My butternut squash, which was growing beautifully well, was nearly decimated. I managed to knock off the hoppers and cover it with a floating row cover. It is rebounding, but not where it should be in growth. 

They also hit my zucchini plants which are producing beautifully. I’m doing my best to keep them covered for a bulk of the time during the day. The tricky part is they have to be uncovered at least in the morning so the bees can pollinate the flowers. I am loving all of our zucchini and don’t want it to end.

While on a walk yesterday I spoke with a neighbor who is an avid gardener and he said the grasshoppers ate pretty much all of his garden. They even went through the floating row cover that he used to try to protect them. It is odd what will not deter them at times.

Another victim of their voracious eating is my potatoes. Since most of the foliage is gone and the potatoes are not be growing very much anymore, I dug them today. I had a couple of potatoes in a fabric grocery bag, and they produced a few handfuls of 1 1/2 inch new potatoes. And the remaining eight hill in the ground offered up a roughly 8 pound crop. Pretty sad! But I turned over the row and planted buckwheat. After I cut it down and turn it under in the fall, I will plant next year’s garlic in the same spot sometime in October.

The grasshoppers won the summer

To salvage the season focusing on the fall crops that will hopefully be spared the scourge. When I harvested the daikon radish, I planted the “Blue Lake” bush beans in their place. They sprouted beautifully, yet the the grasshoppers began to eat the tender seedlings. I covered them with the floating row cover. This is the same for the buckwheat that I planted after I pulled the garlic.

Extending the Growing Season Can Be Done!

The other day I picked the last batch on the small row of bush beans, and planted the area with beets. I have a feeling I will cover them as soon as they emerge. But I really hope we will have a frost that will knock back these grasshoppers, then warm up to allow the fall garden to grow. The fall is typically a favorite time of the year for me to garden, but this year is more important than ever.

Most of the time pests aren’t that big of an issue here in Montana, but the grasshoppers won this summer. Besides our unseasonably hot and dry weather, the numbers of grasshoppers makes this is a year I won’t soon forget.