We get these weird black grasshoppers with yellow racing stripes down the sides...no kidding.

We just stomp 'em every chance we get. We don't like to use chemicals. But we do have six guinea hens ordered....DEATH to grasshoppers!!

I've had good success with insecticidal soap especially when the hoppers are small as you describe.

Also neem oil should work well but I've never tried it.

Is there anyway to pen the chickens NEXT to your garden where they could eat wayward insects and yet not cause damage to the garden? More trouble than it would be worth, I suppose . . .

Good luck!
PattiOh

Honestly, that's why we are getting the guineas. They are supposed to be really good about eating the bugs without scratching up the plants. Our chickens are going to have to stay in the pen - BIG feet and no manners! And the (er...ah...) guinea poop is supposed to be small and dry and not smelly - hardly noticeable. They say. I hear they do make a racket when any strangers come about. That could be a mixed blessing. But we'll see.

Thanks! I will try the insecticidal soap. I squish them every chance I have but their are so many that I'm afraid that just isn't enough.
Meghan

Thankfully, I don't have the hoards that you seem to have, Meghan. I just get the oversized brown ones (about 3" long). I come at them from behind with a pair of long-nosed pruners and snip them. Have never heard of any spray that would keep them away. Same for the katydids.

Anne

I've started using NoLo Bait. Can't see a difference yet, but it doesn't work instantly. Found it at a local garden center where they sell some organic items.

Here is a link that might be useful: NoLo Bait information

We get them by the hoards out here. Walking across the place will send litteraly hundreds of them flying. I use Sevin dust on my plants and vegetables. It doesn't make them die it just keeps them from munching down the things I want to keep.

MeMo

I have loads of the green kind. MY poor hollyhocks are getting it the worse and if they keep it up their will be nothing left of them by mid summer. Like you said Memo, you just walk and see them all jump. I even get (maybe from the same kind) these monster green locusts. Thankfully not as many of those but they are huge. I'll look into both the soap and the sevin. I have to do something or else I'll have no garden to speak of!

momof2 . . .
Did your larkspur bloom at all this year? Mine is just getting ready to bloom. Not anywhere near as wonderful as last year. The very cool spring did us in as we went right into heat.

Hey haven't seen you around in awhile 3orangeboys! Good to have you back! As for the larspur I was really disappointed. I planted two different kinds of them and in one bed a few really small straglers that may or may not bloom. The second bed I have 3 blooming now and a few others that are about to bloom but no where near what I was hoping for. I really think both the weather and the heavy rains right after I sowed them had a lot to do with it. I'm going to sow some next spring as well and hope I get a better show.
Here are a few purples that are blooming but their are some others that haven't bloomed yet.
{{gwi:699310}}
Meghan

Megan, your larkspur are lovely, they use to self seed in my garden but haven't seen any for years, yours have just reminded me how very pretty they really are. So sorry you're having such a problem with grasshoppers, that's one problem I haven't had to deal with yet, touch wood. I hope you find a solution before they do to much more damage.

Annette

Meghan, those are beautiful. Mine are nothing compared to what they were last year. I think in Southern regions like ours, it is a bit touch and go. Last year we had a long warm spring which I think really worked for the larkspur. Keep trying. Try sowing them in the fall. that worked for me.
Thanks for missing me!

I have had no better control in my yard than nesting Blue Birds. They have voracious appetites and their foraging attracts other birds into the yard. You might as well hang up a Buffet sign.

Place a bluebird house so it gets morning sun and shade from the Western sun and you will have a 'couple' in no time. They can raise up to 3 broods a year and often the young stick around even after the second brood hatches.

Hungry little fellas!!

Ooops Here is the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue birds: nature's bug control