07/16/08 Grasshopper season

As the summer heat continues to dry out the land the grasshoppers are looking for fresh vegetation and this year they're finding it in Adams and Washington counties. Idaho State Department of Agriculture's Dick Lawson says those two counties had Mormon crickets in the spring and now the hoppers have arrived LAWSON "Yes I think they're going to have to go grasshoppers more out in the crop land, further east and north of where the Mormon crickets are." Last year Lawson said they had reports of grasshoppers as far north as Latah and Benewah counties. This year they had poison bait ready to go for farmers who need it to protect their crops. LAWSON "And the last four or five requests for evaluation in Benewah County in the Troy to Deary area. Now that's pretty far north for what we expected. That looks like what we're going to be facing this year a pocket up there in the Troy-Deary area of Benewah County." Last year Lawson says a big effort was made to halt a grasshopper infestation in Valley County and it looks like it paid off. LAWSON "Very few requests for evaluations and those really have been of no significance so we're kind of real tickled in '08 that Valley County in the Cascade area on all that pasture land has been not show to be a problem with grasshoppers." Oneida County is another area that is expected to have hopper problems again this summer. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott