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Re: ANTS, flee beetles, & GRASSHOPPERS

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Margaret said,

>The safest control for grasshoppers is Nosema locustae, protozoa that cause
>disease in grasshoppers. It's most effective on small (1/2 inch) hoppers.

I am in the final throes of producing an enormous book on grasshopper 
research funded by APHIS from the early to mid-1990's, and N. locustae is 
covered in it.  This product did not prove to be the silver bullet we all 
hoped for.  The company commercially producing it was not able to keep the 
quality control up to snuff, and it just didn't take in the natural 
environment like our scientists hoped it would.

However, for the record, nothing in our research indicates "It's most 
effective on small hoppers."

I will keep the list posted on the publication status of the Grasshopper 
Integrated Pest Management User Handbook (USDA Technical Bulletin 
1809).  Once the last 2 sections are in print (one is coming off press June 
19 and the last should be out by Halloween), USDA's Agricultural Research 
Service will be taking PDF files of the book and making a CD-Rom on GH 
control for the general public.  There will also be a Web-posted version 
via ARS.

The entire GHIPM User Handbook package includes a green 3-ring binder, 7 
sections of color publication materials (all looseleaf), a set of index 
tabs, and a couple packs of individual color factsheets by Mr. Grasshopper, 
the 90-year-old Dr. Robert Pfadt of the University of Wyoming.

It's all free, and we have already been sending parts of the package as 
they came off press to the 358 depository libraries in the USA that 
indicated an interest in USDA pubs.  (These are mainly the land-grant 
universities.)

When it's all finished, I will post how you can order a copy for yourself 
by e-mail.  But the book is solely about rangeland GH of the U.S. West--not 
your eastern U.S. garden-variety hoppers.  The content is definitely 
directed at managers of rangeland ecosystems.

--Janet


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