Eastern Washington Officials Foresee Grasshopper Population Explosion

By: Emily Easley

Eastern Washington officials and agriculture experts are concerned about a potentially devastating grasshopper infestation next season. This summer, northeastern Oregon was faced with its own grasshopper epidemic. Oregon Congressman Greg Walden called upon the state to help provide important protection for Oregon farms and forests from crippling infestations.

“Eastern Oregon is under the threat of being overrun by invasive grasshoppers that harm agricultural production lands,” Walden said.

Experts predict next year will be one of the worst grasshopper seasons that Oregon has ever seen.

Whitman County Extension Educator Stephen M. Van Vleet and USDA Associate Larry Skillestad have recognized the problem and plan to do something about it.

“Eradication is not possible,” Stephen M. Van Vleet said. “We can only contain the problem with grasshoppers.”

According to the Baker City Herald, the main contributing factor that creates and elongates this already devastating problem is a female grasshopper’s ability to lay up to 200 eggs in just one summer. Each egg pod is filled with dozens of grain-sized larva. Female grasshoppers lay their eggs underground, where they stay for months until they hatch. By the following summer, farmers are stuck with a massive problem that continues to grow throughout the summer.

Grasshoppers naturally gravitate towards dry weather and start to show up in late May or early June when the temperature starts to rise. By the end of a long dry summer, a grasshopper population can swell to the point where crops are destroyed. They commonly live in large groups and in dry weather will reproduce at an alarming rate.

Monoculture crops, which are very prevalent in southeastern Washington, are a large part of a grasshopper’s diet. Grasshoppers will eat most everything though, even each other.

Grasshopper eradication methods include contact sprays and baiting. Contact sprays of emerging populations can work, especially when applied to the edges of a yet to be effected area. Baits consist of food, oats and grains laced with toxic chemicals. They tend to kill very quickly, literally dropping populations where they cross the poisonous food.

Stephen M. Van Vleet and Larry Skillestad will help orchestrate a plan for Washington’s problem with grasshoppers. They will work with Whitman and Adams County agents, county commissioners, state legislators, and possibly some national officials on a plan to include Whitman County and Adams County.