While some may think of grasshoppers as friendly insects, and this is generally the case in terms of their behavior toward humans, the same cannot be said of their impact on your property. Grasshoppers can consume half their own body weight in a single day, and when a grasshopper infestation takes place on your property, the plants, grasses and other life in your garden or landscape will often be heavily impacted.
At Logan Extermination, we’re here to help. We provide a wide range of pest control and yard maintenance services, including identifying and removing the common pest types that may not necessarily impact your home’s interior or you individually, but could do extensive damage to your lawn or garden. In fact, we’re even running a current $85 special on perimeter grasshopper control for those dealing with these pests.
One area that homeowners are often involved with here: Identifying the presence and damage of grasshoppers before calling our team for prevention and extermination options. Here’s a primer on how to identify grasshoppers, plus how you can tell if they’re causing a problem on your property.
Basic Identification Themes
First and foremost, you need to know how to identify grasshoppers visually. Here are some basics:
- Grasshoppers are between 1 and 7 cm in size as adults.
- Females are larger than males, with a sharp backside point that’s used for laying eggs.
- All grasshoppers come with large eyes and antennae, and may range from brown or gray to green, depending on their species.
- They also have chewing mouthparts, two sets of wings, and long back legs.
- Grasshoppers can fly, and will sometimes do so in the summer and early fall to look for food.
If you need visual assistance, look up a picture of a common grasshopper on the web to use for reference.
Inspection Locations
If you know what a grasshopper looks like and have identified some on your property, it’s time to inspect certain important yard areas. For instance, grasshoppers love to nest in areas that have lots of grass and other low plants, so you’ll either find them in tall grasses or around your shrubs – they don’t like to be exposed in the open very often. In dry environments like Utah, the grasshoppers you’ll more commonly see in these areas will be brown or tan-colored.
What You’re Looking For
When inspecting these areas, you’re looking specifically for active grasshoppers or signs of their damage. You can listen for their well-known chirping noise, which is their main form of communication, but even if you can’t hear it, check these areas for things like chew marks in the grass, holes in various shrubs, or a large number of leaves that have fallen from a shrub onto your garden (this might mean grasshoppers have been eating plenty).
For more on how to identify the presence and damage of grasshoppers on your property, or to learn about any of our lawn care or pest control services, speak to the staff at Logan Extermination today.
