Grasshopper & Katydid Nymphs

Grasshoppers and katydids can be a common but unwelcome sight in the backyard garden. These insects can be pests in the immature and adults stages, feeding on a variety of plants causing holes in leaves or consuming large parts of the plant foliage. Unfortunately, people often wait until it's late in the season to attempt to manage these pests and end up trying to manage the adults. This doesn't always result in the best management. Adults can not only walk or jump to get away from treated areas, but they have fully developed wings and can FLY. Immatures, or nymphs, do not have fully developed wings and cannot fly, so they are a better stage to target management strategies.

For grasshopper or katydid management, you can try natural products with active ingredients such as spinosad, neem, d-limonene, pyrethrum or rotenone. There are also many synthetic products with active ingredients such as cyfluthrin, permethirn, bifenthrin or carbaryl. Of course there are also non-chemical methods to try such as vacuuming up the critters or using row cover to protect your plants. Remember, manage these pests early when they cannot fly away!

What are these holes in my plants?

The majority of questions that I fielded last weekend were regarding what could be chewing holes in the foliage of plants. Caterpillars, grasshoppers and leaf beetles come immediately to mind. Of course, everyone also wanted to know what they could do about the bugs.

First, look at the damage to determine if it's old or new damage. New damage will appear "fresh" and be green around the edge of the wound. Old damage will show browning around the area that has been chewed. If you have old damage, it's most likely too late to provide treatment as the bugs could have moved on to bigger and yummier plants. If it's new damage, first look for the bugs that could be doing the damage. This is where a bit of basic entomology comes in handy so you can properly identify what you're seeing. Try looking images up online (make sure to utilize a reliable resource such as a university or extension service). The TAMU entomology website hosts a variety of resources here:
http://insects.tamu.edu/websites/
If you can't find what you've got, you can always contact me for help.

With insect pests, it's usually better to try managing them early when they are still small. Why? Well, for one, they're small which is often easier to kill. Secondly, they are not as mobile as in the adult stage. Remember, adult insects have wings and can fly away, immatures have to hop, walk or crawl.

So for chewing insects, what are your options for control? Cover the plants with row cover to exclude the insects or hand pick the insects (wear leather gloves in case they try to bite you) from the plant and drop them in a bucket of soapy water. If you have a lot of insects or a lot of plants, you can try using a shop vac to suck the insects off the plants. Other options would be using products with active ingredients such as spinosad (get good coverage on foliage since insects have to consume this for it to work!), neem, d-limonene, pyrethroids (cyfluthrin, bifenthrin, deltamethrin, etc.) or carbaryl. Remember, when you choose pesticides, find ones that have the location you are treating on the label and follow all label instructions!