Grasshoppers swarm farm near Radville

Saskatchewan farmers have had a tough year.

Many of them have been suffering through the drought. A lack of rain has stunted crop growth and made it difficult to grow hay for cattle.

However, there are some areas where they’ve had a decent amount of moisture. In at least one of those places, another problem rears its ugly head.

Bev Pirio farms near Radville in the southeast. Her farm has been overrun by an infestation of grasshoppers.

For one thing, it makes work on the farm more of a chore. When 980 CJME went on a walk through the fields with Pirio, hundreds of the bugs jumped towards us, and they have no sense of personal space.

“Oh, I got one up my skirt,” Pirio said.

Gross.

They’re definitely unpleasant, but that’s far from the only problem they cause. She explained that they will take a big bite out of the farm’s profits this year.

“We’re very fortunate right now. Our crops are not that (dry). We’ve been catching the odd rain here and there. (The crops) are probably average, but we estimate that we’re losing almost 30 per cent of yield in the areas where the grasshoppers have moved in,” she explained.

Spraying pesticide is their top line of defense against the pesky pests. However, with so many grasshoppers, it’s difficult to even tell where they’ve sprayed, and it’s not like they want to coat their entire crop.

“You always hesitate to spray because it’s a pesticide. You have to take so much more care to spray it because it’s dangerous to the applicator. But once it’s sprayed, it usually would knock them down for a while. It would kill and have some residual,” she said.

Her family has been farming this land since 1990. It’s not the worst season for grasshoppers they’ve seen in those 31 years, but it’s close.

“I think it would be 100 times worse here right now if we weren’t catching these rains. And it’s not a lot of rain, it’s two tenths (of an inch) of rain, but they don’t like that. They like dry, arid areas,” she said.

“It’s probably our second worst (year) that I remember.”

For farmers across the province, it’s been a rough year so far. However, it’s in Pirio’s nature to stay positive.

“At the mercy of the pests and the weather and the markets, but you know what? That’s why we farm. We’re inherent gamblers. We also love to work for ourselves, it’s a wonderful place to raise a family. But yeah, you always have to be a little bit prepared for this kind of a disaster.”