Grasshoppers
Big-jawed hoppers that chew ragged notches out of leaves from the edge inward. In an outbreak year they strip a garden in days and will even gnaw bark off young twigs.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Screen the beds
Floating row cover or window screening over prized plants is the only thing that reliably holds in an outbreak year.
floating row cover garden fabricTry this first2Deal with the hatching ground
They hatch in undisturbed weedy ground and roadsides, not in your beds. Mowing or treating those areas in late spring while nymphs are small does more than anything you do in the garden.
3Bait rather than blanket-spray
Bran baits, including Nosema locustae products, are eaten by young nymphs. They act slowly and do nothing to adults, so use them early or not at all.
grasshopper bait nolo4Chickens and guineas help
Poultry ranging the garden edge take a real bite out of nymph numbers, though they will not stop an invasion on their own.
5Expect to repeat any spray
Border insecticide treatments have only a few days of residual, so a steady invasion means spraying every few days, which is rarely worth it.
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Which plants get grasshoppers
Every plant we cover that gets grasshoppers, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Rosaceae, with 4 of the 11 affected plants.
- Rosaceae4 plants
- Asteraceae2 plants
- Fabaceae2 plants
When to treat
Timing is early, in the field next door, not in the garden. Young nymphs in late spring near their hatching ground are killable; the big adults that fly in during a hot dry July are not, and sprays last only a few days against a steady invasion.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for grasshoppers and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets grasshoppers, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.