Grasshopper hordes wreak harvest havoc

Swarms of grasshoppers are chewing their way through prairie fields this harvest.

The plant-eating pests are also wreaking havoc with machinery and grain storage, testing the patience of farmers trying to get their crops in the bin.

“The ground is moving in front of the combine. They’re fluttering and going everywhere. It’s like a cloud of grasshoppers moving in front of the combine all the time,” said Myron Finlay of Vanguard, Sask.

“They stick to the augers and combine and grain cart. They make a thick gum coating on everything.”

Half-baked grasshopper juice also has a particularly abhorrent aroma that sticks to the nostrils.

“You know when they are on the front of your vehicle. That’s what it smells like. Like rotten socks,” he said.

The problem is so bad that it has become a daily chore to clean “the greasy guts of grasshoppers” from the combine hopper.

“Climbing into the combine hopper to get a sample of the lentils and you’re just covered with grasshoppers from head to toe.

“They’re pretty gross,” said Finlay. “We sprayed and we sprayed and it obviously helps but boy, there’s still a mess of grasshoppers out here.”

There are 85 kinds of grasshoppers in the province. Only four are typically pest species, but all four overwinter as eggs.

Populations are driven in large part by weather, said James Tansey, insect and pest management provincial specialist in Regina.

“What we’re seeing this year is really a product of what we saw last year coupled with some pretty good conditions for them this year. But there is a possibility for populations to be considerably higher than they are now.