Mission Valley farmers battle grasshopper infestation

By KYLIE RICHTER

Lake County Leader

Lake and Sanders counties are seeing one of the worst grasshopper problems in recent history. 

Lake County was hit hard by the insects about three weeks ago, and Jack Stivers, extension agent for Lake County, said the western part of the county is the worst he has seen it in 25 years. “It has potential to get worse,” he said. “We expect to hear of more issues as the summer goes on.”

In Sanders County, extension agent Jason Badger said the issue is affecting the entire county. He added that the window of time to spray for the hoppers is narrow, and farmers are running out of time to spray. “The substantial lack of moisture this year has made for a better reproductive cycle,” he said.

Badger said in a phone interview last week that “The roads look like they are moving.”

On Irvine Flats road, Sue Nash and David Nash are feeling the brunt of the grasshopper infestation. As of last Wednesday, they had lost between 60 and 70 percent of their grazing land. The last time the saw grasshoppers this bad was in 2003. “They even ate all the needles off of our trees that year,” David Nash said. 

Out in their garden, not many plants are growing. “I’ve tried to replant three times,” Sue Nash said. In the raspberry bushes, the leaves look like skeletons. Grasshoppers sat on leaves that were still there, slowly munching holes through them.

About three weeks ago, the Nash ranch was infested with the insects. “The whole side of the barn was covered with them,” Sue Nash said. “There were so many on my garden that it looked like a wave.”

Out at the Nash ranch, the state sprayed three days last week, according to Joe Marenz of the Montana Department of Agriculture. “We sprayed most of Irvine Flats,” he said. According to Marenz, a normal amount of grasshoppers on grazing land is between three and eight insects per square yard. “Grasshoppers are a necessary part of the ecosystem, but at about 15 you start losing forage.” The Nashes had between eight and 100 grasshoppers per square yard. The areas with 100 grasshoppers are usually a nest of smaller hoppers.

On Wednesday, the ground around Sue Nash’s garden was covered in dead insects. They also littered the cement by their garage and even sat dead on their front porch.

Out in the valley at the end of Irvine Flats Road, the landowners have gotten together to try to put up a fight against the pests. “Unless everyone sprays for them, the problem isn’t going to get better,” she said. 

Unfortunately for landowners, the spray used to kill the hoppers only works on young ones. If they did catch them before they were full grown, there isn’t much they can do. 

Nash said she didn’t want the chemicals on her plants. “I try to be as organic as possible,” she said. Many years ago, she found a way to ward off hoppers with a homemade solution. She uses it on her garden, but it wasn’t enough this year.

While the Nashes try to find a place to graze their cattle, landowners closer to the Flathead River who irrigate are having a little more luck. The hoppers are more prone to diseases in a wet environment, and less likely to thrive. However, planes have been dropping spray on some of that land.

Steve Stanley, the emergency manager for Lake County, went out to the Nashes to see the infestation a few weeks ago. “It’s hard to explain to people unless they’ve actually seen it,” he said. The local government can’t do a lot for the landowners, but Stanley said they try to work with them to solve problems and prepare better for next year. 

For the agricultural community, these grasshoppers leave plants with no leaves, stripped down to only a stem. That means no nutrition for cows, and not as many bales for feed. “Economically, it has a huge impact on the agricultural economy,” Stanley said.