Telow - I don't know the answer to your question, but that is very interesting. Wonder if they were just attracted to the color?

I know that warehouses always have a huge problem with crickets because the flock in through open doors to eat the cardboard.

As far as I know, researchers have not been able to establish exactly why grasshoppers eat paint, fiberglass window screens, cardboard, caulking, cloth and clothing, wooden fence poles and tool handles, etc. but we know that they do. The oldest references I could find regarding grasshoppers eating non-plant items go back to the pioneer days in Utah.

At our house, in years of severe drought, we've had them eat our window screens, the unripened fruit on the trees, tree bark, rag rugs on the porch, etc. Long before they eat that stuff, they've already eaten everything they want from the garden.

I do know that if you buy Pella windows with fiberglass window screens, the window warranty excludes grasshopper damage to the window screens. So, it must be pretty common for hoppers to eat those window screens or it wouldn't be written into the warranty as an 'exclusion'.

Dawn

Some scientists say that grasshoppers only eat "crazy items" near the end of their life cycle, after they've already fulfilled their biological destiny by laying eggs to perpetuate their species. I'm not sure that's entirely true.

Several months ago (in August or early September, I think) our volunteer firefighters were caulking a part of the fire station where a new wall had been errected to separate the firetruck parking bays from the new conference/training room, kitchen and bathroom. The crickets and grasshoppers were eating the caulking right after it was applied. In a day or two, they'd eaten it all. We sprayed the building for bugs, and then recaulked a couple of days after that and I don't think the pests came back inside the building to eat the caulking agan. However, I suspect it may be an ongoing problem every summer.

I have read that they like latex products. I can't verify that, nor do I know if all outdoor paint contains latex, but if there is an alternative that is latex-free, you might want to give it a go.

Susan

I've had this grasshopper on my porch since he was a baby. He would eat plants around the mailbox but now that he's got his wings I've seen him eating at the wooden mailbox post, and today he's moved on to the the paint on the front gate! I don't know if that's good for him or how his face is even strong enough to get that stuff off, but hopefully it doesn't keep up. Is there anything I can use to divert him from eating my house?

I always heard they would eat the paint off your house, but I've never seen it. Guess its true. I have no idea how to stop it unless you spray and kill the hoppers.

I'm fond of him since I watched him grow up, so killing isn't an option haha. He's the only one around so I could just deal with it ^.^

Maybe he is old, nearing the end of his life cycle and losing his mind. In states that have a shorter summer than we do, they often see this sort of grasshopper behavior in autumn, not too long before the weather turns cold and the grasshoppers die. I am not sure why we see it in summer instead of in autumn here, but I do see my grasshopper population begin dropping in early August, so maybe some kinds of grasshoppers have lived their natural life cycle by now and are nearing death. It could be that in the cooler states where such paint-eating is a common issue in fall, maybe with their shorter season, their hoppers are just as old and near death in autumn as ours are in late July or early August.

He barely got his wings like four days ago. Do you think he's going to die when it gets cold? I started hand feeding him flowers so maybe that will help with the paint problem. I was surprised he'd actually take flowers from me ^.^ I like this grasshopper a lot, I even gave him a name haha. I just want to keep him as healthy as possible, I like having him around.

Do you think I can catch him and keep him in a jar for the winter?

Then release him in the spring

Thumps is his name ^.^