Grasshoppers have been the bane of gardeners for centuries.
These insects are responsible for consuming up to 25% of the available forage in the western half of the US each year. That’s a lot of food that could have been available to people and livestock.
A heavy grasshopper infestation can reduce a garden to stubble in a matter of days. It’s important to stop grasshoppers in their tracks before the population gets out of control, but for many gardeners it is out of the question to use chemical pesticides.
Fortunately, there are organic products available that will kill grasshoppers before they can destroy crops.
These products infect grasshoppers with a naturally occurring disease that is much like a bad case of grasshopper flu. The disease is called Nosema locustae and it infects over 90 species of grasshoppers and also some crickets. People, pets, plants and other insects are not affected by this grasshopper disease.
Source-PlanetNatural.com
Nosema locustae is offered for sale in gardening catalogs and garden centers and is sold as Semaspore Bait or NoLo Bait. These products have a short shelf life, about eight weeks, so buy only as much as you need. It will keep up to five months if kept refrigerated.
More on the subject of Grasshopper Control here:
http://www.freeplants.com/grasshopper-control.htm
Have a great week, and as always, stay inspired!
-Mike McGroarty
I would be careful because many illnesses can cross species (think common cold, black plague haunta virus, bird flu, Lyme disease, and many many more). This isn’t even legal in all 50 states. At this time it doesn’t harm humans but more exposure to each other could change that.