Hoppin' to it with grasshopper control

 

Posted by Todd Hagenbuch, Routt County CSU Extension

You’re wondering why an Extension blogger from Routt County, of all places, is submitting a piece on grasshoppers, right? Surely our area, home to amazing snows, Ski Town USA, and pristine, green hay meadows doesn’t worry about hoppers, right? Wrong. Look at this map of the state and you’ll see that our gardeners, ranchers, and wildlife managers all have to deal with the impacts of grasshoppers and the damage they cause more than most of the state.

2021 USDA Colorado Grasshopper Count

You might also be wondering where the data on the map came from. Did you know that the USDA counts grasshoppers on range and cropland to figure out how many there are in areas of the state? In NW Colorado, that job has been done for years by two people who are also Colorado Master Gardeners. As people who understand plants and insects, the two different CMGs who have done this job have been key to the Routt County Extension Office helping local landowners decide if and when they should apply control measures.

Control measures are generally recommended in crops and in range if numbers exceed 15 grasshoppers per square yard. Today my CMG friend and USDA grasshopper counted 43 hopper nymphs per square yard (!) at one site, and another intrepid CMG shared the photo below of hoppers in a dog park in Steamboat Springs. How many nymphs can you count in this area, which is just over a square yard?!?

How many nymphs can you count in this square yard?
Photo Courtesy CMG Donna Segale

As a gardener, you know that just a few hoppers can cause a lot of damage, especially after they’ve molted several times and have become ravenous adults. Large-scale spraying efforts, like I’m recommending for rural landowners and ag producers in Routt County, isn’t as desirable for garden situations, especially if you’re growing veggies. That begs the question: what can I do as a gardener when the swarm is heading my way?

Granular baits laced with insecticides are one way to help control grasshoppers. When the insect eats the bait, they die and become part of the organic matter of your garden. As there is still insecticide involved, however, some folks would like another option. Covering your garden, or at least the rows in it with a lightweight, floating row cover is an excellent measure, making sure hoppers can’t get in but light and air can.

One of the most unusual but coolest control measures I’ve seen involved a two-fence approach, where the garden was located inside a fenced area with another fence located about 15’ outside the inner fence. Each fence was about 6’ tall and not only kept elk and deer out of the garden, but the area between the fences housed about 50 hens who patrolled the area. As hoppers flew in, they were immediately gobbled up by the chickens and rarely got as far as the garden. The ‘chicken moat,’ as the owner called it, was a creative, useful idea that brings me a smile every time I think about it.

If you have grasshoppers, think about creative ways you can limit the damage they do to your yard, garden, or property because they can be a formidable enemy. Also, for more information on grasshopper control, hop on over to CSU Fact Sheets 5.536 and 5.535 to learn more ways to keep this insect at bay.

A Blog about VLOGGING! by Yvette Henson

This past fall, when I was researching the speakers that were going to be at an event I was planning on attending, I discovered vlogging!  Several of the speakers scheduled at the event I went to are what are considered modern day ‘homesteaders’ and have YouTube Channels where they VLOG about what they are doing on their homesteads.  Some of them have 1000’s (or even 10's of thousands) of subscribers!  I watched a few VLOGS and a new world opened up.  Turns out vlogging is currently a popular thing!  

VLOGS may be ‘old news’ to you, or perhaps, like me, they are something new.  VLOGS are simply video blogs--videos that are posted regularly, usually to YouTube, but Facebook, personal websites, Twitter, or many other outlets can be used.  In addition, vloggers also use other social media to support what they are doing.  VLOGS can share snippets of information or tell a story over time.  The most popular ones share a story over time, allowing the viewer to participate in the vloggers life on a somewhat ‘personal’ level.  By vlogging one can build like-minded community with subscribers and other fellow VLOGGERS.   Another reason to VLOG is to promote a cause or small business.  I’m not sure exactly how this works but the more followers you have increases opportunities to make income.

Viewers can learn about gardening (or just about any topic) in different locations of the country and world.  Of interest to me are the VLOGS that share daily life on a farm or in a garden. Although I’ve marathon-watched a few channels that I subscribe to, I don’t have a lot of time to spend really delving into this interesting cultural trend -- there are SO MANY VLOGS out there!

At this point I want to say that the information you find on VLOGS is not always accurate.  However, you can still learn from others’ experience and/or you can comment to add your own knowledge-- politely of course-- you don't want to be a 'hater'!

So far, I haven’t found many VLOGS put out by Universities that focus on gardening.  (Perhaps this is an opportunity?!)  Most of the University YouTube Channels post short research-based informational videos but aren't truly VLOGS.  The advantage, of course, to university channels are that they are trusted sources of information which is very important in our world of easy access to information on the internet.  

Colorado State University Extension has a YouTube Channel and many of the professionals who write for this Blog also have videos posted on this channel. Following is one about identifying Austrian pine that has had a lot of views:

Watch CSUE's YouTube channel here: CSUExtension 

MIgardener is a very popular channel with short videos that cover a wide range of gardening topics.  They also sell $1 packets of seeds.  Everyone loves a harvest video.  Enjoy this one on radishes.

A major aspect of modern day homesteading is self-sufficiency, which includes growing one’s own food, so homesteader VLOGGERS post a lot about their gardens.  My favorite Homesteader VLOG is Roots and Refuge Farm, Jessica and Jeremiah Sowards.  The following video is the introduction to her channel.

The Hollar Homestead chronicles a families year-long sojourn across the county in search of their 'Forever Homestead'.

I hope this brief blog has peeked your interest to get on the internet and explore the wonderful world of VLOGS!  After you do, I would love to hear about your favorite VLOGS.