By Robert Wright
Figure 1. The differential grasshopper, one of four grasshopper species in Nebraska that feed on crops. The others are the twostriped, redlegged, and migratory grasshoppers.
Field surveys at the South Central Ag Lab near Clay Center this week found grasshoppers in field borders in numbers high enough to warrant treatment.
Only four of the more than 100 species of grasshoppers found in Nebraska normally damage field crops. These species are the twostriped, redlegged, differential, and migratory grasshoppers.
Figure 1. Immature grasshoppers are; feeding in field borders in south central Nebraska. Treatment at early growth stages is most effective.
Control measures are most successful now when grasshoppers are:
- concentrated in field borders and treatments can be targeted, and
- small and immature before they become adults and have fully developed wings.