More dryness could worsen grasshopper outlook

Expect more grasshoppers next year if weather and growing conditions mimic those of last season, says a provincial entomologist.


“The forecast is a bit worrisome in large part because of their population development,” said James Tansey, Saskatchewan Agriculture’s pest management specialist.

“The population increase or decrease depends very much on weather conditions and we had conditions that were favourable for large numbers of grasshoppers to mate and to get eggs into the ground. That has to do very much with a long, dry, warm, mid-summer to late summer and early fall,” said Tansey during an agronomy research update hosted by crops extension specialists and held in Saskatoon