Grasshoppers abound

Published: 2020
By Marko Manoukian

In mid-June of 2020, MSU Extension agent Manoukian received a call from a concerned producer in the southern part of the county. They reported that grasshoppers seemed to be numerous and had started eating the barley hay seeding as well as other grasses. Manoukian reached out to USDA-APHIS and State Plant Health Director Gary Adams. Adams responded by sending two field technicians to evaluate the situation on July 1. The technicians sampled three ranch locations and performed five counts. If normal economic thresholds are eight grasshoppers per square yard, the technicians inventoried low counts of 30 and high counts of 85 per square yard. APHIS quickly started the process to create a contract for rangeland insecticide application if a minimum block of 10,000 acres of rangeland could be assembled. To do this with a land ownership checkerboard, involving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would be necessary. APHIS had prepared the appropriate Environmental Analysis and had funding for control efforts. The BLM decided to not participate with the APHIS grasshopper control program statewide. This has resulted in APHIS projecting high grasshopper infestation for the southern part of Phillips County and much of eastern Montana for 2021. Even with a lot of planning and cooperation, if every agency is not participating, important economic impact projects like grasshopper control are difficult to tackle.