Weed and pest control districts at the county and state level, as well as federal agencies, are preparing for a busy summer of treating the grasshoppers. They outlined the potential problem in a briefing to the Legislature's Joint Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Committee.
Grasshoppers are a valuable food source for many prairie animals, including sage grouse chicks, but an overabundance is problematic because the insects feed on the same vegetation as livestock and other wildlife. Last summer's outbreak hurt hay production and prompted some Wyoming ranchers to downsize their herds.
"They may seem small, but they make up for it by being voracious eaters," said Scott Schell, assistant extension entomologist for the University of Wyoming. The Wyoming acreage infested with 15 or more grasshoppers per square yard increased more than 10-fold from 2008 to 2.9 million acres last summer, according to surveys by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The 2009 outbreak set the stage for the offspring of those grasshoppers to cause problems again this summer, mainly in eastern and parts of north-central Wyoming.
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Learn about a South Dakota producer who relies on a local agronomist for pest control.
