Wyoming Grasshoppers Then and Now

Ellis Hein
Thursday, December 19, 2024

“Why not eat insects?” Jim Wangberg asked this in 1987, and it set off more than a classroom discussion. At the time, Wangberg was department head of plant, soil and insect sciences at the University of Wyoming. His question was particularly pressing following Wyoming’s big grasshopper years in 1985 and 1986, with densities of up to 100 grasshoppers per square yard in some locations. That many grasshoppers can devastate an agricultural based economy.

J.R. Parker in Bulletin 233 of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, 1930, defined an infestation as more than seven grasshoppers per square yard in range land, or more than four or five per square yard in cropland. Seven adult grasshoppers per square yard over 10 acres will eat as much grass as one cow. Seventeen grasshoppers per square yard in a 40-acre alfalfa field will eat the equivalent of one ton (dry weight) of hay per day. At 50 grasshoppers per square yard, they will have eaten all the range grasses by August, without help from grazing cattle.

Actually eating grasshoppers

Wyoming is known for cowboys and big game animals. Many people feel that if they can’t rope and brand it or hunt it with a high-powered rifle, why would they want to eat it? But WHY NOT eat grasshoppers?

Wangberg conducted a graduate seminar by cooking a meal of—you guessed it—insects. Top on the menu was grasshoppers sauteed in butter. The students and professors attending the seminar ate them. Wangberg made his point: Throughout history humans have eaten grasshoppers. The attenders won’t forget this, but the news went far beyond UW grad students. National news sources, including Paul Harvey’s "News Hour," picked up the story.

Did you know, as Wangberg pointed out, there is an allowable content of insect parts in food items ranging from peanut butter to flour? Compare the nutrition of hamburger at 18 percent protein and 18 percent or more saturated fat, to that of cooked grasshopper coming in at 60 percent protein and 6 percent unsaturated fat. A nutritious and beneficial “contaminant.”

Therefore, should we view grasshoppers as an enemy or an economic asset?

Some grasshopper stats

Bar chart shows numbers of grasshopper populations in Wyoming peaking in1877, 1922, 1937, 1949, 1958, 1985, 1998, and 2010 for the years between 1868 and 2019.
The distribution of articles about grasshoppers in Wyoming Newspapers closely correlates to the occurrence of grasshopper infestations.

Grasshopper population densities peak about once every 10 to 12 years. A glance at the number of articles about grasshoppers published in Wyoming newspapers starting in the 1870s to the current year reflects this cycle. The highest peaks occured in 1922, 1937, 1949-1950, 1958 and 1985, with smaller peaks elsewhere. If you push the starting date back to the 1860s, the total hits in Wyoming newspapers for “grasshoppers” is 13,289. My sampling of the articles published suggests there is a strong correlation between high grasshopper population densities and the number of articles appearing in Wyoming newspapers. Grasshoppers and the devastation they cause are newsworthy.

Wyoming is home to about 200 species of grasshoppers, five of which eat field crops, and 25 subsist on range grasses. The others may vary from beneficial to neutral, from an economic point of view. So, when county weed and pest departments report on infestations, they are most likely talking about some of those 30 species that do damage.

They are the ones whose populations can suddenly reach densities that are locally destructive and cause large migrations to other areas. Migratory grasshoppers (Melanoplus sanguinipes) and several other species will migrate in search of food. When their population densities exceed a certain level they will grow slimmer bodies and longer wings, enabling them to fly higher and longer distances. Pilots have reported encountering grasshoppers at 1,400 feet above the ground. At these elevations they can travel 100 miles in a day.

Enemy

close-up of a two-striped grasshopper
This two-striped grasshopper is able to devastate a farmer’s crops. University of Wyoming, Etymology Field Guide.

Let’s look at the two-striped grasshopper, a species that has wiped out farmers’ fields of small grains since Wyoming Territory’s early days. At densities of 100 per square yard, an absolute sign of crop failure, you are looking at the weight equivalent of one 870-pound steer per acre.

Map with photo of two-striped grasshopper shows the insect's range from across southern Canada all the way south almost to the Mexican border, except fo areas along the Gulf Coast.
This map shows the wide distribution of the twostriped grasshopper, Melanoplus bivittatus (Say). They inhabit tall, lush, herbaceous vegetation.

A “herd” of grasshoppers will cut down several times as much foliage as it eats. The hoppers, like the steer, deposit fecal material. The steer is shipped off to market; the grasshoppers eventually die in place. If the grasshoppers don’t migrate, all nutrients from the grasshopper return to the local soil. The steer carries most of the nutrients off to market.

And there are some environmental benefits: Grasshopper feces break down more easily than cow dung. Their bodies also degenerate quickly. And the litter they produce increases soil ability to retain water and reduces summertime soil temperatures—all this enhances forage production in upcoming generations.

When an infestation can mean the loss of an entire season of crops or the production of rangeland, it’s easy to see why farmers and ranchers feel something must be done to control grasshoppers. The term “grasshopper war,” or its shortened form “hopper war,” came into use shortly after the end of the First World War and depicted the grasshopper as “the enemy.” The “hopper war” terminology peaked during the Korean conflict but lingered in newspaper articles until 2007. That phrase accurately captures much of our past attempts to deal with grasshoppers: They have been viewed as a pest to be eradicated in any way possible.

Fighting the hopper war

Early attempts at control consisted of poisoned bait, such as this 1920 recipe: “1 tubful sawdust, 2 pounds arsenic, 1 gallon syrup, 6 lemons and one to two gallons water.” The bait would be broadcast by hand either while walking or while riding in a wagon being driven over the affected area and would treat about five acres. The treatment would be effective until the sawdust dried—a few hours. Shortly after the close of World War II we started using aircraft to apply poisons on thousands of acres to kill grasshoppers consuming range land grasses as well as crops such as alfalfa, sugar beets and cereal grains.

Map shows most frequent grasshopper outbreaks between 1944-1999 have been in the eastern half of the state, as well as areas in north central Wyoming.
This map illustrates where Wyoming has had the most problems with grasshopper infestations.

In 1950 a special joint session of the Wyoming Legislature created the Grasshopper Control Board to oversee treating about 2.5 million acres of land with poison bait. Treatment was required. The board had designated powers, and could direct the commissioner of agriculture to take possession and control of infested lands in order to combat grasshoppers. The special session appropriated $750,000 to pay the costs of application. This figure was supposed to be matched by federal funds. After much delay, the federal government did pay $655,000. The Grasshopper Control Board returned the unmatched portion to the state treasury. The 1950 effort baited more than 2 million acres, but because of the shortfall in matching funds, 250,000 acres were not treated.

The 1950 poisoned bran bait did not control all species of grasshoppers. Species that primarily eat grass, such as the slant-faced grasshopper, would not eat the bait. Subsequent treatments would consist of spraying liquid poisons.

Who paid for grasshopper control? In 1950 the state and federal governments split the costs. Landowners in 1981 paid one-third of the cost for spraying. Federal and state governments paid the rest.

The 1985 cost for spraying was $1.70 per acre. The per-acre cost was split three ways: landowner share at 25 percent ($0.425), state share at 42 percent ($0.714) and federal government share at 33 percent ($0.561.)

By 1986, the state required landowners to pay $0.50 (malathion) to $0.80 (even—this is the name of the poison) per acre as their share of the cost and the state and federal government would pay the rest.

In 2011, the Wyoming Legislature allocated $2.66 million for grasshopper control. The Emergency Insect Management committee would decide how to distribute the money to ranchers and farmers wanting their fields sprayed. There was no mention of cost sharing with the federal government.

Problems

Poisons, either liquid or treated bran flakes, created problems.

In 1951, members of the Izaak Walton League reported finding large numbers of dead game birds in areas treated for grasshoppers. In 1965 we discovered that diazinon killed fish in streams that were sprayed and malathion killed aquatic insects the fish feed on. In 1986 the Wyoming Legislature initially approved a measure that would pay Wyoming beekeepers $250,000.00 to reimburse them for losses due to aerial spraying of malathion for grasshoppers.

To mitigate some of these problems, the University of Wyoming, in 1998, developed a new application program to conserve beneficial species and to reduce the amount of insecticide applied. Reduced Agent and Area Treatments (RAATs) treated alternating 100-yard swaths resulting in 75 percent to 90 percent control, a little less than blanket application achieved. But streams and ponds could be avoided and not as many bees and other beneficial organisms were destroyed. UW’s goal was to get costs of application down to $1.50 to $2.50 per acre.

The table below shows the stated costs in 2024 dollars These figures come from https://www.dollartimes.com.

Date Cost per acre at the time Cost per acre 2024 dollars
1920 poison bait $0.25 $4.06
1949 poison bait, aerial application $0.67 $8.53
1950 poison bait, aerial application $0.58 $7.54
1985 $1.70 $4.95
1986 $1.75 - $1.80 $4.91 - $5.05
1998 RAATs $1.50 - $2.50 $2.85 - $4.75

Economic Asset

Not everyone has viewed grasshopper infestations as a liability. Farmers and ranchers have found other ways of dealing with the problem.

The 1919 Torrington Telegram ran an article on how to build a 16-foot-wide grasshopper catcher that collected the grasshoppers in a box. The cost was roughly equivalent to poison bran mix to treat 50 acres one time. The bran mix was only good for a few hours; the machine for several years.

Poem with the refrain, "Woe! woe! woe! We young hoppers will sell ourselves for five old coppers; we're done for sure, 'tis useless crying. Cold storms will come, and we'll be dying."
In 1877 warm February weather induced grasshoppers to hatch early. Once they realized their mistake, they composed this lament. Cheyenne Daily Leader, March 3, 1877, p.3, col. 4 "

Ranchers could catch about 1,000 pounds of live grasshoppers in two to three hours of operation. These were shoveled into sacks and left in the sun for a day. The dead grasshoppers were then spread out on canvas to dry, creating about 500 pounds of prime chicken food. At the going rate for meat scraps for chickens—$0.06 per pound— the rancher could sell the dried grasshoppers for $6.00 per hundredweight (cwt). One farmer refused to sell for less than $60.00 cwt. One pound of dried grasshoppers mixed with grain caused his chickens to lay a dozen eggs a day in winter. (Normally chickens don’t lay much in winter) Grain without the grasshoppers produced no eggs. He could sell his grasshopper-produced eggs at $0.60 per dozen.

Cost to build the grasshopper catcher: $15.00 to $20.00 ($278.86 to $371.81 in 2024). Income generated by a 1,000 pound catch: $30.00 ($557.72 in 2024). The drawback of this approach was that the catcher could only work on relatively smooth ground. If your ground was rough or rocky, then you would need a different strategy.

In 1922, Mr. Alfred Eastgate, an assistant in the grasshopper control work for the federal government, told farmers in Park County that one turkey would eat about seven bushels of grasshoppers in one growing season, enough to keep grasshoppers under control on about two acres. This would “turn a pest into a blessing.” If each farm in that part of Park County would market 100 or more turkeys it would be a source of income in addition to the value of the crops raised and as long as continued “would put to an end all fear of a grasshopper plague.”

In 1916 turkeys were selling at $1.50 apiece ($44.67 in 2024 dollars). One hundred turkeys, eating 700 bushels of grasshoppers, on 200 acres could be sold for $150 ($4,467 in 2024 dollars). In 2024 dollars, that is $6.38 per bushel of grasshopper or $22.34 income per acre to be rid of grasshoppers.

In 1931 the student newspaper at the University of Wyoming, The Branding Iron, reported an even more lucrative approach.

Bi-Rite Sporting Goods newspaper advertisement pitching fishing lcenses and various kind of bait, including dried grasshoppers for 39 cents a box
In 1951 Casper’s Bi-Rite advertised dried grasshopper fish bait.

A young boy borrowed several of the largest fish caught by his friends, which he carried strung across his back. In his hands he carried a can containing a lot of grasshoppers. Thus armed, he walked past all the fishermen gathered at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone National Park.

“Where did you get those large fish?” they inquire.

“They came out of the lake,” is his casual and truthful reply.

"What bait did you use?"

"Oh, I've got some grasshoppers that do the trick,’ is the young fisherman's comeback.

“Where did you get them?”

The youth said he’d caught them probably 10 or 12 miles away. He sold his grasshoppers at a nickel each ($0.95 in 2024 dollars).

At that rate, it would take only 24 grasshoppers to surpass the $22.34 per acre income stated above.

Resources

Primary Sources

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Secondary Sources