Grasshopper well into flower

[ston-loc]

Any ideas to get rid of them? Plants recently started getting really chewed up. Digging around finally found the culprit. At least one of them. Big guy too.

 

[ShOrTbUs]

my plant has a few grasshoppers living on her. i got some chewed up leaves as well. but as far as i can tell, they don't seem to be a big fan of the buds. so i think i'll let them stay.

 

[ston-loc]

Yeah it's mainly just damage on the leaves, but still. Getting pretty bad on a couple areas that it seems like its killing off whole branches, buds that aren't fully developed.

 

[ShOrTbUs]

wow your grasshoppers seem far hungrier then mine. i have a bit of leaf dmg, but nothing like what your talking about. i know grasshoppers HATE spicy food. maybe a little tabasco and water mixture, and spray it on the leaves

 

[Hushpuppy]

I don't know it will work for grass hoppers but you can try drenching the soil with Azamax. The plant will absorb it and it will disperse throughout the plant and make the leaves taste bad to any chewers for about 2 weeks before it is degraded biologically. It works great against most chewing critters. You won't taste it or smell it in finished product if it is applied more than 2 weeks out from harvest.

 

[ston-loc]

Thanks for the tip HP. Two of them are far enough out, but the one I actually seen the grasshopper on I was thinking only has a couple weeks left.

 

[Hushpuppy]

If you had the plants fenced in good, you could get a couple frogs to in there with them and they would eat the hoppers over time. Or you could put a mosquito net over the plant itself and enclose it at the bottom to keep the hoppers out if the plant isn't too big, while still letting the sun in.

 

[Rosebud]

I just read up in Common-Sense Pest Control book and they say that the best thing for grasshoppers is BT a bacteria the poisons the grasshoppers stomach. BT is neem oil...They recommend hand picking them off. I don't like neem but if they are eating your buds? are they eating the leaves or the buds or both?

 

[ston-loc]

Just seems like the leaves. Well, sugar leaves even, so getting pretty haggard looking. Just wasn't sure if it will affect the last weeks/month of progression o the buds. Maybe I'm just over thinking it. They always get pretty messed up looking by the time harvest comes

 

[Hushpuppy]

You don't want to get neem oil on the buds as it is slow to degrade because it is an oil. That is why I use the Azamax because it goes inside the plant and doesn't affect the flavor. you can most likely use it up to about 7 days without it affecting the taste but I like to try to stay further. As often as I have used it, I have never noticed any difference in flavor from using it, and Azamax is made from Neem oil but is made to be mixed in water and absorbed by the roots of the plant.

 

[ston-loc]

Right on. I actually have some, so ill give that a try.

 

[mojoganjaman]

I have 31 plants in my yard...most 6ft+...tons of hoppetrs out there, but really minor leaf damage...the buds are packin' on weight and no signs of hopper-predation on the buds....hth