AusBonsai

Hi All anyone know a home made recipe for getting rid of grasshoppers. I seem to have a plague of them - tiny green or brown ones about 10mm long They are decimating everything ATM. Anyone else having similar problems ? Don't really like using chemicals but I need to do something.


Tony

DK had a similar prob where you are mate, his way of fixing it was a chook


jamie

No room for chooks - between house, shed, plants and car prking our 600m2 block is full

Depending on how many trees you have you can build a shelter for them with light shadecloth so they cant get at them. Even if you bought a length and laid it over them.

bodhidharma wrote:Depending on how many trees you have you can build a shelter for them with light shadecloth so they cant get at them. Even if you bought a length and laid it over them

I agree. I have my trees in a 50% shade house and very few hoppers make it in, but the strawberries and rhubarb in the vegy garden outside are only tatters with the wingless grasshopper plague down this way (third hatching!) Even a shadecloth blanket should help. Last year when I had enough water for a vegie garden I used clear builders plastic pegged to the netting garden fence to keep most at bay. It worked quite well. They don't seem to hop all that high so that may help,

Best of luck,

Jan

Thanks for the advice, but my trees are spread out over such a big area shade cloth or similar isn't possible. Was hoping there was something I could mix up to spray the trees but not harm them. Thanks anyway


Tony

Tony
Did you ever get rid of the hoppers If so how as i am starting to get to many to handle at my place and as you my plant are spread out so covering them with netting or shade cloth is out of the question.

any help would be greatly appreciated

I found this ingredient from the net. It just a bit messy to prepare though. And thanks for teasing Jamie
Note: I do feed the hoppers I could catch to the chooks!

Garlic Oil Spray
To make: Combine 3 ounces of minced garlic cloves with 1 ounce of mineral oil. Let soak for 24 hours or longer. Strain.
Next mix 1 teaspoon of fish emulsion with 16 ounces of water. Add 1 tablespoon of castile soap to this.
Now slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic oil. Kept in a sealed glass container this mixture will stay viable for several months. To use: Mix 2 tablespoons of garlic oil with 1 pint of water and spray.

no prob DK

how did that recipe work for ya? i have a couple of hoppers here and there but not often, and have you noticed if it has worked on other instects aswell? is there a less overall amount of bugs on the trees?

jamie

Hi Andrew
We found a similar recipe on the web. You can also use chilli instead of garlic. Haven't needed it much until the rain stopped - they are coming back again. Love the banksias you got - suppose the source is a closely guarded secret

Thanks for the recipe's I will be going shopping tomorrow.

Re: Nursery
Not a guarded secret just good time that the gates were open. In the 3 years I have live here i have only seen the gates open a hand full of times and i always go past as it is on my way home.

Jamie, it appears to work against the hoppers and and possibly other bugs. I actually didn't strictly follow the correct measurements and also substituted castile soap by diswashing liquid. I guess that this is to help the solution soak the leave better.

thanks DK i reckon you are on the money with it being used as a penetrant