Texas Fishing Forum

Grasshoppers in my strawberries.

Posted By: Jon

Grasshoppers in my strawberries. - 06/23/20 03:32 AM

What is a quick, safe, and hopefully easy solution to keep grasshoppers from munching on my strawberry plants.
I have 4 days to deal with it then gone for 2 weeks. Neighbor is going to water them from a valve tied to top of our fence feeding a soaker hose when needed. But i wont ask him to fight the grasshoppers.
We’re pulling berries off and dont want to use anything harmful to people eating them.
Thanks! smile
Posted By: Snakeyes711

Re: Grasshoppers in my strawberries. - 06/23/20 04:26 AM

Hm,maybe throw some plastic mesh over them,a double layer so the hoppers wont be able to get through. Stake it down at the corners if necessary. I had something eat a few shotholes in my S berries leaves but not too bad. My biggest problem was snails eating the berries themselves. And squirrels stealing them. Next spring I'm gonna build a frame covered with chicken wire and drop it over the entire patch(its about 6 x 6).And lay pieces of hardware cloth on the ground around the plants for the berries to lay on to keep them away from the snails.
Posted By: Jon

Re: Grasshoppers in my strawberries. - 06/23/20 05:25 PM

Thanks Snakeyes. I already had to put bird netting over it - just one layer though. That was to keep the birds from pecking the ones that just got ripe enough to pick and it works well for that..
Some of these grasshoppers are so small, they could get through 3 layers of that mesh. The one layer I have now is a pita for pulling it off to tend the plants and pick the berries. That stuff would snag on a toothpick and stick like velcro. The hoppers are not too bad this year - yet. But we finally got our first 1.3" of rain the other day after months of drought. So I expect the grasshoppers to start getting worse as evidenced the last few days.
Posted By: Jon

Re: Grasshoppers in my strawberries. - 06/23/20 06:28 PM

I went and checked just now, 1:00 pm and didn't see a single hopper. Maybe they only come out in the evening when i usually water?
If I knew they wouldn't get any worse than they are now, I'd just leave them alone.
I can tell you the strawberry plants sure do better with rain water than well water. I've about used up what I had caught and stored off the roof back when it was raining.
Been on Well water for a couple weeks and you can sure tell the difference.
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