Hunt'n hoppers

[bilmac]

Years ago grasshoppers were about to wipe out my garden. I tried everything, nothing worked. I would hit them full force with a blast of poisen, and if you watched they would drop to the ground and writhe around for awhile but then eventually they would shake it off and go back to eating my veggies hungrier than ever. Finally out of frustration I started whacking them with my Daisy. In just a few evenings shooting and you could start to see a difference, not so many hoppers and there were dead ones laying around, which I never saw when I was trying to poisen them. I think I saved my garden with my BB gun that year.

This year the hoppers are back, and I don't think I've ever seen them this bad in my life. County ag. people call it an infestation of Biblical proportions. They have completely defoliated some apple trees I planted this spring. Rows of carrots and onions have disappeared without a trace. Now my gardens are way larger than I had when I used to work for a living, so trying to save them is pretty much out of the question, but I've taken up the Daisy again.

This time all I'm looking for is a little payback. I'm a wanton murderer, I don't finish off the ones I've maimed, missing a leg now Charlie, get a crutch. I delight in seeing them fly apart into multiple pieces. No such thing as giving them a sporting chance, if I can put the barrel to the back of their heads, there's one that won't get away. I've gone through most of a 2500 count pack of BBs now and I may be able to save one row of golden bantam sweet corn I had my mouth set for, but at least I will have fought back.

[blind ear]

How much heavy cover do you have around the garden area? Can you identify where they are comeing from. I had the same problem with them eating up food plots on an pipe line ROW. There was grass cover from knee to chest deep on both sides. I didn't try fighting them. Too many acres to mow.

I may have to take up hopper poppin with my pellet pistol. Wonder if I can kill enough to make a meal of parched grass hoppers. Skinnin um won't be a problem. Anyone have any good hopper recipes?     eddiegjr

[bilmac]

I want to go from the hoppers eating my plants to my plants being fertilized with grasshopper guts.

I did have a garden once that was pretty grasshopper resistant. It was mostly surrounded by pretty big lawns. Watered every day, frequently mowed, you don't see many grasshoppers in lawns.

[steg]

glad to hear that I'm not the only one that hunt's Hoppers, those and the white moths that give you those green cabbage worms, those moths are hard to hit they only land for a second or so before their off again...steg

[Bigeasy]

Try one of those battery operated soft air machine guns.  Fill the hopper with a couple hundred plastic bb's, and let er rip at about 700 shots per minute.  What these guns lack in accuracy compared to a good pellet rifle, they make up for with rounds on target.  It's a blast to visually work a twenty round burst onto your target.  A couple years ago, recovering from surgery, I spent about a month on the back deck shooting at anything that flew or crawled by.  I was getting so I could hit dragon fly's on the wing...lol

Larry

[bilmac]

You gotta be careful not to do more harm than good. I let a kid shoot some in my garden once. Ended up with busted waterlines and BBs in the tomatoes. I don't mind watching out for shot in a pheasant, but not my maters.

[Ranger J]

Just be glad you don't have Japanese beetles.  Liquid 7 seems to put the hurt on them on treated plants but have to keep spraying new growth or if it rains.  There seems to be no end to the little buggers.  Probably too small to shoot with BB gun.  7 might work on your hoppers.  You can always gather a bunch and go fishing.  Have caught a lot of bluegills and catfish on hoppers over the years.  Trade a bunch of bluegill fillets for zucchini?  I'd make hat trade.

RJ

[bilmac]

I tried Sevin and Malithion and every other thing that was legal. There was a pesticide dealer in my home town that was asked about poisen that would kill grasshoppers. He said "you can kill them if you mix it right. You have to mix the poisen with enough water to drown them"