Expert says warm, dry conditions to blame for huge grasshopper population

Grasshoppers have been a menace across Saskatchewan this summer.

They’ve been destroying crops, bouncing around yards and hanging off screen doors.

James Tansey, the Ministry of Agriculture’s provincial pest management specialist, told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday the grasshopper population has been so high because of the warm, dry weather conditions from this year and last year.

“(They) contribute to really, really good conditions for these females to get their eggs into the ground and for the developing embryos inside those eggs to get to a certain level of development before winter comes,” Tansey said. “If they don’t get to that level of development, their survival over the winter will be reduced.”

He said last year’s conditions helped get that development moving along.

“Boy needs to meet girl. Beautiful music plays and they get the eggs into the ground,” Tansey added.

The pest management specialist said there were relatively moist conditions in many parts of the province this spring, adding there was a lot of greenery for the nymphs to feed on once they hatched.

“One of our main pest species is the two-stripe grasshopper and we had instances of them coming up almost two weeks early in some regions, so (there was) large populations of nymphs,” he said. “We actually had spray going down for nymphs in a number of different crops in the spring, so they were invading from field edges and they required control by some growers.”

Tansey said he predicts grasshoppers will remain a problem next year as well because of the warm, dry conditions expected for August.

“(That will happen because there are) lots of eggs going in the ground and barring … a pretty significant frost or cool wet conditions next year,” he added. “Neither of those really seem to be in the cards right now.”

Apart from ruining crops, grasshoppers actually serve as an important food source for many animals, including Richardson’s ground squirrels, coyotes, raccoons and little predatory birds, Tansey explained.