American Bird Grasshopper Eats Peas out of Pods

American Bird Grasshopper Eats Peas out of Pods

Periodically in late spring when I am harvesting pole sugar snap peas, or in summer while picking black-eyed peas (California No. 5 cowpea) , I find pods with the peas eaten out of them. Bite marks on the pods indicate side-cutting grasshoppers, rather than mice or birds. Occasionally I find a large flying grasshopper nearby. This grasshopper has been identified as the American bird grasshopper, Schistocerca americana (Drury).

In 2010 overnight I had most of my maturing sugar snap peas eaten out of their pods by these grasshoppers. Apparently a large number of the grasshoppers flew in during the night to do their damage. The next day I picked all the remaining peas so I would get some. The next morning I checked the peas and found no obvious further damage to the foliage of the peas. It looks like the grasshoppers were after the almost mature green seeds rather than pea leaves, and not after the fully mature and hardened (dried) seed peas.

In black-eyed peas they ate the immature peas out of the pods.

Free-flying adults normally avoid low-growing crops such as vegetables, but pods of tall pea and black-eye pea vines are readily eaten on.

It is suggested that gardeners in the range of these grasshoppers keep their pea crops picked daily so there are few pods on the vines with maturing peas left for the grasshoppers to get at night. Or one could have the vines growing low to the ground.

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D.,  (C)  2011 --

See article:   

 http://www.simplykitchengarden.com/vegetablepests/231.html