Grasshoppers swarm into Sanders County

Matt Unrau

Earlier this year Sanders County was labeled as a potential hot spot for grasshopper infestation. It turned out that they were right. Authorities from APHIS, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, counted high egg counts in the spring and by the middle of May they started to see hatches that have continued to the present day.

Grasshoppers usually run amock on the eastern side of the county especially in the Hot Springs area, but this year grasshoppers have even appeared in large numbers all the way to Trout Creek and Heron, which are usually too wet to sustain them.

Gail Patton, Sanders County Commissioner and Lone Pine cattle rancher has seen this before. He says he has seen three cycles of this size before, one in mid 80s, one in ‘05-‘06 and now. Since he has been through the battle before he started spraying early in the year. “There is no use waiting for it until they’re flying,” says Patton. Once the grasshoppers are flying Patton says there is no curbing the massive numbers.

Patton says that the roads are brown and slick from all the smashed grasshoppers. “They were just a regular army moving across the field,” says Patton. “They were coming down the side of the road in armies.”

Dale Neiman, office manager for the Farm Service Agency in Lake and Sanders County, says there has been a lot of crop and hay damage on dry land so far. With the combination of dry weather and the grasshopper problem Neiman says there has been a 75% reduction of dry land hay fields.

“People are going to have to start feeding their livestock early because of a lack of fall grazing. This translates into lighter calf weight..and a shorter paycheck.” According to the USDA Sanders County had approximately 20,000 head of cattle in 2008.

So far APHIS has sprayed 12,500 acres by air and another 2,250 acres by ground. All of this spraying was done solely on tribal land, since tribal ground is considered federal ground and the federal agency is responsible for it. “Agency-wise that was the only thing that was available,” says Neiman.

However, at this point according to Neiman APHIS says “the only thing that has a real effect is a natural decline of the population due to weather and a disease in the population. When there is an overpopulation, a disease runs though it.” The disease is more likely to happen when there is a wet and warm spring, which was not

Because of the severity of the situation, Patton says he has been hearing requests that it be declared a disaster area by the County Commissioners. However, Patton says that before the Commissioners can do anything they have to wait for a request from the USDA and Local Conservation District, which would have to wait until the end of the season so it could know the extent of the disaster. Patton prefaced this statement however by saying “that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen.”

Because of the situation the Sanders County Weed Control has literally been hopping with grasshopper spray sales. “This year the sales have been probably double what last years sales were,” says Coordinator Mike Chenowith. In the months of June and July Chenowith says the grasshopper spray was his highest selling item more than herbecide.

There are three different types of chemical sprays, one that shed skins, a “contact” that kills and a natural fungus control product that affects only grasshoppers.

Although his spray has been flying off the shelves Chenowith expected the high demand and brought in extra inventory. “I sort of knew it was going to be a bad one,” says Chenowith. He says that the sales are starting to slow down now though as most grasshoppers have matured and “people are running out of time and money.”