Grasshopper Control Without Chemicals

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PHOTO: FOTO66/FOTOLIA
This method of grasshopper control is too clumsy, limited, and slow, but a pathogen exists that is capable of dealing with the problem they might pose to your garden.

If you expect trouble from grasshoppers in your area this summer, check out a unique organic pesticide marketed as Nolo Bait or Semaspore Grasshopper Control. Both products contain spores of a naturally occurring grasshopper disease called Nosema locustae in a bran bait.

The grasshoppers become infected when they eat the bait. The disease is slow-acting but spreads gradually, usually causing about 50 percent mortality after two weeks and reduced hatches the year after application.


Cheryl Long is the editor in chief of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine, and a leading advocate for more sustainable lifestyles. She leads a team of editors which produces high quality content that has resulted in MOTHER EARTH NEWS being rated as one North America’s favorite magazines. Long lives on an 8-acre homestead near Topeka, Kan., powered in part by solar panels, where she manages a large organic garden and a small flock of heritage chickens. Prior to taking the helm at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, she was an editor at Organic Gardening magazine for 10 years.Connect with her onGoogle+.

  • Published on May 6, 2009
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