“Grasshoppers should be emerging throughout the Klamath Basin over the next 30 days,” said Rob Wilson, a Farm Advisor for the Intermountain Research and Extension Center in Tulelake, Calif.
On Tuesday, April 23, Wilson reported finding the first young nymph grasshoppers of the season on Sheepy Ridge.
“Over the last month, I’ve been sampling for grasshoppers…to get an idea of when they start emerging around Tulelake. Today, I found some,” stated Wilson. “The young nymphs were found on a south-facing slope about 500 ft above the valley floor off Hill Rd.”
Although the insects were first spotted days ago, it will likely be a few more weeks before they appear on the valley floor.
“It is still likely a couple of weeks to a month before we start to find numerous grasshoppers emerging on the valley floor, but farmers and ranchers should keep an eye out for tiny grasshopper nymphs over the next month,” explained Wilson.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) held a grasshopper informational meeting on Tuesday. At the meeting, the ODA Hermiston District Manager, Pete Valiz suggested that Clear-winged Grasshoppers (Camnula Pellucida) are the primary species in the basin. They like to lay eggs on untilled loamy soils with cover.
“The nymphs are often first found in warm south-facing slopes. Similar to the site I found them at today,” said Wilson.
Wilson advises that insecticide treatments work best on young grasshopper nymphs before they develop wings.
In preparation for the expected infestation, Gene Souza, Manager of the Klamath Irrigation District, stated, “Ditch riders have received training to identify, count, and report grasshoppers along our ditch banks, which will assist the ODA in accurately tracking and mapping the areas of concern.”
Through the winter months, Klamath County Commissioners Dave Henslee and Derrick DeGroot have been working with state agencies to secure financial assistance for farmers with damaged crops. This week, the Commissioners, along with Oregon Representatives E. Werner Reschke and Emily McIntire, announced $100,000 in funding for farmers impacted by grasshoppers.
“While I understand funding from the state is inadequate to totally eradicate the grasshopper problem, I am thankful for the work that the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Klamath County Commissioners have done to try to get ahead of this problem this year,” said Rep. Reschke. “My role, along with Representative McIntire, was to quickly secure state funding for Klamath County and to engage ODA in solving this problem.
Reschke adds, “Within the week the county should receive $100,000 from ODA to help eliminate grasshopper beds as they are discovered. ODA already has personnel working with farmers and county officials, scouting Klamath County to help find grasshopper nesting locations. We are far ahead of where we were last year. Hopefully this effort can make 2024 a year that grasshoppers do not have any significant impact on our agricultural community.”
Earlier this month, a coalition of irrigation districts in the Klamath Project requested state and federal assistance in addressing the anticipated grasshopper outbreak in the Klamath Project this year.
“In 2023, grasshoppers like we’ve never seen before hatched from the dry Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, and caused tremendous damage to growers crops throughout the region to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and counting,” the letter stated.
Klamath Drainage District, Klamath Irrigation District, Van Brimmer Ditch Company, and Tulelake Irrigation District all signed on to the letter, which was sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
“Last year KDD lands took a beating from the millions of Clear-wing Grasshoppers that hatched on the dry refuge and moved onto the district,” explained Scott White Manager of Klamath Drainage District. “Thanks to the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s quick deployment to the Basin, our staff have been trained up on what to look for and how to respond.”
In the summer of 2023, a devastating “Biblical Plague” of grasshoppers attacked and decimated fields adjacent to the dry refuges of the Klamath Basin. An article from Klamath Falls News from July 2023 stated:
“Grasshoppers can eat more than two times their body weight in a single day. Thirty pounds of grasshoppers can eat an equivalent amount of grass as a 600-pound heifer. Beyond damage to crops and pastures, they strip forages that deer and other wildlife depend upon.
“Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges, two of the earliest refuges established for the protection of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, have never been a source of grasshoppers because they have historically been dominated by wetlands intermixed with rotational cropping. Now, both refuges are completely dry except for a small area in each. Mustard weed, poison hemlock, and other weeds have replaced the tules, sedges, and other wetland plants, and constitute the only remaining food source for the billions of grasshoppers that have emerged this spring. Lower Klamath, a refuge that as recently as 2019 was the origin of hundreds of thousands of ducklings, in addition to its historical habitat for fish and other wildlife, is now the source of what many are referring to as a “plague” of grasshoppers.
“For John Crawford, who also serves as the president of Tulelake Irrigation District, the first concern is for impacted producers. “We are looking at potentially millions of dollars in crop losses and additional production costs at this rate,” he said. “We don’t yet know how bad it’s going to be.” According to Crawford, pasture grass, alfalfa, and wheat have been the crops most impacted so far, but potatoes are not far behind.
“Crawford, a hunter, fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and former board member of the Nature Conservancy of Oregon, also sees the outbreak as an indictment on the current federal management of water and refuges in the Klamath Basin. “This is the consequence of single-species management for fish – and now we need some single-species management finally – for grasshoppers!”
“Producers should keep a close eye on their fields and treat the field when grasshopper numbers exceed 8 per square yard. Don’t wait to treat until they have wings and are mobile,” Wilson concluded.
“It is critical that growers and farm workers familiarize themselves with what to look for and where to report,” added White. “We must be aggressive, or this problem will not disappear.”
Images from the 2023 Grasshopper infestation
photos by Chelsea Shearer
Related
- Grasshopper Infestation Archives (Klamath Drainage District)
- First grasshopper sighting of 2024 (April 23, 2024, Intermountain Insights)
- Getting the Jump on Grasshoppers (April 18, 2024, KWUA)
- Ag department survey angers basin producers (April 14, 2024, Herald and News)
- OSU Extension helps Klamath County farmers save forage by detecting and Suppressing grasshoppers (February 2023, Oregon State University)
- “Biblical” plague of grasshoppers reveals unintended consequences of a de-watered landscape (July 24, 2023, Klamath Falls News)
- Video: Grasshoppers infest lower Klamath area (July 19, 2023, KOBI)
+++
Cover photo caption: A Grasshopper Nymph found by Rob Wilson on April 23, 2024. Wilson advises that insecticide treatments work best on young grasshoppers before they develop wings. (submitted photo)
