Texas Grasshopper Infestation 2024: Free Fishing Bait

The one silver lining to a grasshopper infestation cloud is that kids can easily catch them for fishing bait or a pet with little energy. Texas witnessed an overabundance of grasshopper nymphs this spring. Farmers, gardeners, ranchers detest seeing them at the beginning of each growing season. 

While some regions in Texas have received significant amounts of rainfall, 46% of Texas remains under various degrees of droughts. Grasshoppers thrive in hot, dry weather, which almost half of Texas is experiencing. Agriculture (Ag) news media is predicting that grasshoppers will reach high populations in 2024 and especially in Montana, Nebraska, and Colorado. 

Hot, warm, and dry weather allows grasshoppers to cycle through their growth cycle, mate, and lay eggs. The timing of rainfall can significantly lower the survival rate of eggs and nymphs in a given area. Areas that receive less than 30-inches of annual rainfall produce a grasshopper threat. 

A long, warm autumn contributes to more grasshoppers laying eggs. In spring, they can hatch and mature two to four weeks earlier in warm, dry climates. In June and July, large grasshopper populations emerge. Their metabolism speeds up in hot weather so they grow bigger and eat more. They do not nest or have territories.

Grass Hopper Species

The five grasshopper species of the differential, migratory, Packard, red-legged, and two-striped grasshoppers cause 90% of grasshopper damage to crops, rangeland, and urban gardens. During severe grasshopper outbreaks, these species cause major damage. 

A female grasshopper can lay between seven and 30 egg pods during the summer and fall. Each grasshopper pod contains 8 to 30 eggs. She lays about 100 eggs per year. Some species can lay up to 150 eggs per pod and others only 40.

How much Damage Do Grasshoppers Cause?

Pest grasshopper species will devour grasses and broadleaved plants. They start life near their hatching area, and when their food runs out, they go on the move. Nymphs do not have wings and hop to find food. Mature grasshoppers can fly for miles in search of food.

The grasshopper’s primary damage to vegetation is defoliation. They consume and clip foliage as they feed. Grasshoppers love fruit, they chew holes in leaves, and consume entire plants.

How Much Do Grasshoppers Eat?

It is hard to believe that 30 pounds of grasshoppers can eat as much as a 600-pound steer. Some ag sources claim that grasshoppers eat 50% of their body weight daily. Grasshoppers have a sweet tooth and favor honeydew melons, nectar, other sugary fruits, and sugary vegetables. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension cites,

“Estimates of daily dry matter intake for grasshoppers range from 30% to 250% of their body weight compared to 1.5% to 2.5% for beef cattle. A 1,250-pound cow would therefore consume 19 to 31-pounds of herbage each day. The same amount of herbage could be consumed by 8 to 104-pounds of grasshoppers.”

Grasshopper Infestations

Infestations of grasshopper cause significant damage to crops, pastures, and rangeland by consuming large amounts of vegetation. Their population rises considerably during drought stages. Half of Texas’ current climate fosters a high probability of grasshopper infestations in 2024.

The key to managing a grasshopper infestation is to monitor fields, gardens, and pastures closely. It is easier to control Young grasshopper nymphs, and this helps to prevent further damage by adults. Out of the 254 counties in Texas, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service operates an ag extension office in 250 Texas counties. 

Besides the ability to phone an ag extension office and talk to a live person in Texas, their website has thousands of research articles available for free, and some of them charge a fee to download. The best time to call for advice on grasshopper control is in February, before the nymphs emerge. 

From Texas A&M Forest Service Extension Entomology:

Veteran farmers and ranchers are familiar with grasshopper control methods, but agricultural colleges are continuously conducting research, which in turn ends up in ag extension offices all over the U.S. 

“Insecticides and integrated pest management strategies, like the Reduced Agent and Area Treatment (RAAT), can help control grasshopper populations and mitigate damage​ (DTNPF)​​”.

Other Grasshopper Research

Most of us have seen the characteristic pose of a deceased, infected grasshopper at the top of plants and objects. It grasps the plant in a death clutch with its front and middle legs, with extended hind legs.

The bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (BT), thrives in soil and is naturally fatal to grasshoppers. Heavy rains splash it up onto plant leaves. Grasshoppers and other insects eat the infected leaves, which cause paralysis of their guts and death. BT migrates deeper into soil in dry, arid climates to absorb the moisture it needs to survive. 

Research Entomologist David Branson, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, reported, “We’re researching how controlled burns of rangeland areas can be used to manage grasshopper populations, either through changing food availability or mortality of grasshoppers and unhatched eggs.” 

Grasshopper Infestation Ratings

From Bosque County Texas A&M Agrilife Extension:

 “You can estimate the size of a grasshopper infestation by surveying for nymphs or adults with the “square foot method.” Count the number of grasshoppers that hop or move within a square foot area. Then take 15 to 20 paces and sample another square foot area. Make 18 samples in all. 

Then add the numbers from each sample and divide the total by two to obtain the number of grasshoppers per square yard. If most grasshoppers you see are first to third instar (wingless and generally less than 1⁄2 inch long), divide the number by three to give the adult equivalent. Count fourth instar and older nymphs as adults.”

(As an insect grows, it sheds its rigid exoskeleton and replaces it with a larger one, or molting. The first instar is the stage after hatching from the egg, and the insect becomes subsequent instars after molting.)

Adult grasshopper infestation ratings based on numbers per square yard for rangeland and field crop locations:

Rating	Adults Per Sq. Yard
	Margin	Field
Non-economic	5 to10	0 to 2
Light	11 to 20	3 to 7
Threatening	21 to 40	8 to 14
Severe	41 to 80	15 to 28
Very severe	80	28+.

What Is the Difference Between Grasshoppers and Locusts?

Grasshoppers and locusts belong to the same insect order, Orthoptera. Locusts and grasshoppers are variants of the same insect. All locusts are grasshoppers, but not all grasshoppers are locusts. 

Entomologists distinguish locusts by shared behavioral characteristics, not physical characteristics. Locust appearances vary from species to species. The primary difference between locusts and grasshoppers is that locusts swarm.  

Locusts perform two interconvertible behavioral phases, solitarious and gregarious. When locusts enter a gregarious behavioral state, they swarm. Other grasshopper species do not have this ability and live in a solitarious phase, or alone, unless mating.

Locust Swarms in the U.S.

We do not see swarms in the U.S. these days. The famous 1873-1877 Rocky Mountain swarms attacked the Great Plains. They estimated this swarm was twice the square mileage of the state of Colorado, with trillions of locusts. The Rocky Mountain locust plagued American farmers from California to Texas to Minnesota.

About the Rocky Mountain Swarms, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), “The Cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air, and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm.”

In the 1930s, the July 26, 1931, swarm was reported as so thick that it blocked out the sun. The grasshoppers ate cornstalks to the ground and left fields completely barren. The U.S. has not seen swarms since the early 1930s. Canada reported the last seen Rocky Mountain locust in 1902, and they are thought to be extinct.