From curious@aimnet.comFri Jul 28 01:39:30 1995
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 23:50:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Georgann K. Cunney" <curious@aimnet.com>
To: Joel Grossman <0003216125@mcimail.com>
Cc: Sanet-mg <sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Grasshoppers

Hello all,

I was living near Grants Pass, Oregon from 1975 - 80, I had a half acre
garden.  I was learning about biodynamic farming at the time...
My garden was directly across a little dirt road from a very large 
meadow.  It was very dry there (also, it was the beginning of a few
year long drought) and we could only get half a gallon of water a minute
from our well.  The first year our garden was wonderful til the grass-
hoppers came and devoured nearly all of it. 

We discovered a remedy that seemed to be fairly effective (to make a long
story short).  We had a large bucket of water in the garden to attrack
birds to bath and drink, in hopes that they might also eat the grass-
hoppers.  This didn't appear to work.  But instead many grasshoppers
landed in the bucket and in the hot sun after about a week, made a very
dark, smelly brew.  We strained it and used it as a spray throughout the
garden.  It worked, they actually refrained from munching.  We would 
collect them into bottles of water which we let sit out in the sun for
a week of so and then strain it to spray.  We also tried (I know this
sounds despicable) puting this in the blender, but it was messy, very
unpleasant and difficult to strain.

I've wondered though how effective this really was.  I don't know much
about grasshoppers, maybe they eat ferociously up to a certain phase in 
their lifespan and then less?  It seemed like they were still eating
all around the garden.  The fact that the garden was the only real green
vegetation around made it all the more inviting - vulnerable.

I'm sure someone on this list would know more about this topic and
approach.  I'd be curious to hear whatever that may be.

I guess this is just about prime grasshopper season.
Goodluck,
Georgann

