Grasshopper invasion feared this summer

[DIMBY]

From MSNBC: A federal survey of farm areas taken last fall found high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho.

And all of our chickens are saying, "Bring 'Em On!!!"

 

[DIMBY]

Oops, should have linked the story so your chickens are read and rejoice:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36074471/ns/us_news-life/

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Oh Sheesh, here in Idaho it is always a plague with grasshoppers! That is why I wanted to get some Buckeyes. The rest of the chickens will have a heyday too, but I am counting on those buckeyes to thin them out!

In the really bad years we have them so bad that they will strip the trees and everything green and then they hop onto us and actually bite us! When you open the car door they fly in and if you walk outside you have to bat them away and then you usually end up with a few carried inside on your clothes.

 

[Tala]

Har Har I remember a few years back we had the grasshoppers really bad. Then another year it was the Katie-Did bugs (however you spell that). When we first moved here it was all about the slugs. My mother-in-law frequently gets her panties in a bunch about cockroaches, and I think she has the "bug man" on speeddial.

I just have chickens!!!!!!


Unfortunately, my bank won't accept backyard chickens as my Terminte control . . . so it's a line item on the budget even though they NEVER EVER find anything

When they're crawlin around under the house I just keep tellin them that bugs just don't survive the trip from the neighbor's house to my house!

 

[StupidBird]

Before we got chickens for bug patrol, we had fire ants. In the house. For ten years. When we refinanced ages ago, the bank insisted on a termite letter; the guy that came out said the reason we were the only one in the subdivision without termites was because the fire ants ate them. The bank wouldn't accept that as a control method, either.

 

[2DogsFarm]

Chickens will eat ants?
I hope they do - my lawn is plagued with anthills!

 

[scooter147]

I remember the last time the cicadas appeared the chickens would get so full and or sick of them they would catch one and just eat the head and leave the rest. I think the noise was driving them nuts and they were just trying to shut them up.

 

[StupidBird]

Quote:
Yes, but I had to teach them. I'd read about it here on BYC; it was the deal clincher for getting the chicks. The hens kept ignoring the ants, so I dug up a couple mounds to show them. They will tear up mounds to eat the eggs and larvae, but not really the ants themselves. I've watched a hen get her feet covered in biting fire ants and just look at them stupidly / puzzled? then wipe them off her face and wander off. they don't seem bothered by the fire ants much.

 

[3goodeggs]

Quote:
a friend of ours is a termite guy. And one of his sayings is "...faster than a chicken on a swarm of termites!"

 

[LALADY1101]

Quote:
OH MY!! I think I'll take the mosquitos of SW Louisiana over those things anyday!!