Predicting insect populations isn’t an exact science, but Manitoba entomologists are confident grasshoppers won’t be a problem in the province this year.
“Most of Manitoba has a low risk of economical populations of grasshoppers in 2011,” Manitoba Agriculture concluded in its annual grasshopper forecast.
Two factors led to that prediction: an extremely low number of grasshoppers in 2010 and poor egg laying conditions last August and September.
“We had a lower population to start with and they didn’t get great egg laying conditions (in 2010), so we’re at the lower point in the grasshopper cycle,” said provincial entomologist John Gavloski.
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Farm production advisers, entomologists and agronomists conducted grasshopper counts at 62 locations in Manitoba last August.
Gavloski said 98 percent of the locations had grasshopper counts of zero to four per sq. metre, which is classified as a very light population.
The remaining two percent of counts had light populations of four to eight insects per sq. metre.
The 2009 count had found that 47 percent of sites had very light populations, 25 percent was light, 17 percent was moderate (eight to 12 per sq. metre) and 11 percent was severe (12 to 24 per sq. metre).
Grasshoppers like warm dry weather at the end of the summer, but last year saw more total rainfall and more days of rain than normal in August and September.
The wet and cool weather during that critical period prevented grasshoppers from mating and laying the maximum number of eggs.
As a result, Manitoba Agriculture is predicting very light grasshopper numbers in almost the entire province.
The only exception is the area around Dauphin and Gilbert Plains, where the grasshopper populations are expected to be light.
