by Will Muller knew right away that he had a grasshopper problem last spring.
Dealing with drought conditions on his farm near the town of Bow Island in southern Alberta last year, he saw the insects hopping all over the field where he grows lentils, durum wheat, canola and beans.
“If you went into the park, you drove into it and the grasshoppers would be flying everywhere, which I’ve never seen,” Muller said.
“You could immediately see the chewing on the plants as well as the leaves being chewed.”
Grasshoppers thrive in hot, dry conditions that are already putting many farmers and ranchers on edge across Alberta. With parts of the province at increased risk of another bad outbreak in 2024, it’s a waiting game to see how many insects take wing, which could put even more pressure on farm operations.
At the end of March, Alberta’s worst drought spots are in east-central and southeast Alberta, as well as a growing area in the northwest Peace River region.
Several species of grasshoppers are major agricultural pests, emerging in the spring from eggs laid the previous summer, and devouring crops. And after large grasshopper outbreaks in parts of Alberta last year, there are now plenty of eggs waiting.
Meghan Vankosky, a field crop entomology research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said she saw some of the problems firsthand while conducting surveys in west-central Saskatchewan, where grasshoppers were also an issue last year.
“They get caught in the wind and blow back into your face, and it hurts to be smacked in the face by a grasshopper flying through the air, especially when they’re big,” she said.
When grasshopper outbreaks are bad enough, they can reduce crop yields.
“It’s just terrible for farmers, because there’s nothing they can really do after a certain point,” said Vankosky.
“Toward the end of summer, as far as you look into a wheat field, you wouldn’t see any plants with leaves. It was just like the central stem and this poor head of wheat trying to develop without any leaves. .”
Grasshopper counts are conducted each summer across the Prairies, and the results help set a risk rating for the following year.
This year’s provincial forecast notes that one problem species in northern Alberta, the Bruner’s-throated wren, has a two-year lifespan. After last year’s outbreaks, that means they are not expected to eat in large numbers in 2024 — but other pest species could still be present.
In southern Alberta, the forecast warns that grasshoppers have had two straight years of “ideal conditions” for hatching and egg development, and that means, “If you had problems with grasshoppers in 2023, expect the same for 2024.”
A critical time for grasshoppers coming up
University of Lethbridge environmental science professor Dan Johnson said the most important period of grasshopper development is still ahead of us.
A pattern is emerging in large numbers of Bruner’s-throated Wrens in the Peace River region in odd-numbered years, bringing salvation to farmers and ranchers in even-numbered years. (Dan Johnson/University of Lethbridge)
“The most important thing is what happens in May,” he said.
Alberta didn’t see grasshopper problems in general last year, but in areas where outbreaks could happen again, the question now is how hot it might get next month, and the timing of any rain.
“When [grasshoppers] first, they come out, they’re so tiny … and they’re very sensitive to rain and mud and things like that,” Johnson said.
“If it’s nice and warm and hot, they can go through a stage and shed their skin and go to the next stage in like four days. But otherwise, they’ll just sit there for weeks, and their lives are just dribbling away and they are not really growing.
“But the dry heat, that’s perfect for them. They just rocket through.”
Johnson said the way grasshoppers have been evolving lately is predictable, especially after years of consolidating drought in southern Alberta.
But changing patterns of different pest species is a challenge for agricultural producers and governments trying to mitigate their impact on the food supply.
The province advises farmers to start scouting for grasshoppers early, especially if they are in areas with a higher risk rating. That is because it is easier to try to reduce their numbers with pesticides if they are caught earlier in their life cycle.
Muller said concern about grasshoppers is secondary to the danger posed by drought. But after the pests caught him off guard last year, he is trying to get ready by spraying his dry fields in the hope that it will help reduce the number of reeds that lay eggs there.
“Suddenly we have to spray for bugs we’re not used to – it’s more money,” Muller said.
“And you have droughts, you have fewer crops. So it’s not a terrible situation, but hopefully we won’t see it this year – hopefully we’ll have some rain.”
