Alberta avoids widespread grasshopper outbreak due to cold, wet spring

After many Alberta crops were devastated by drought-loving grasshoppers last year, the province forecasted that parts of the province were at heightened risk of another bad outbreak in 2024.

But those who study the insects say that isn't what happened — thanks to the weather.

Dan Johnson, a geography and environment professor at the University of Lethbridge, studies grasshoppers and has been monitoring them in southern Alberta this summer.

"We had a really unusually cool June and that is the most important month for grasshopper growth and development," said Johnson.

"It allowed a little bit of decline due to dying off, but also slow growth.… So it really set them back."

However, he says, those that did survive those tough conditions are now thriving. And some parts of the province that remained hot and dry through the spring and early summer are still battling outbreaks — some worse than last year.

But overall, there isn't the same widespread grasshopper outbreak throughout Alberta as seen in recent years.

Johnson says most parts of Alberta are seeing a delay with the grasshoppers, and have just started seeing them now. He said hopefully that means the five pest species in the province are laying less eggs.

It's good news for southern Alberta farmer John Kolk, who is witnessing that delay. He runs an irrigation and dryland farm near Enchant, a hamlet about 150 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

He says he usually starts seeing the insects pop up near the end of May.

"This year, they really started showing up maybe in the last couple of weeks," said Kolk.

Kolk says he isn't expecting to see much damage to his crops this year, and he isn't going to bother spraying them with pesticides.

"We have some pretty tight numbers that we look at, and unless they're over those kinds of numbers, we just won't address them. We'll just take a little bit of damage."

It's a far cry from the outbreak he experienced in 2021. That year, grasshoppers devastated at least 15 acres (6 hectares) of beans and other dryland crops.

He says it's a relief after a tough few years.

Ken Fry, an entomologist at Olds College, says smaller populations this year should mean next year won't be too bad.

However, as this year shows, Fry says that's all dependent on the weather.

"If you have even a normal population of grasshoppers, but the conditions are such that the vast majority of their offspring are successful, that can cause problems," he said.

"There's not just one or two eggs per female. It's, you know, tens of eggs per female," said Fry.

Johnson notes a two-striped grasshopper — a common pest species in Alberta — can lay roughly 200 eggs.

Johnson says the grasshopper population has been growing in Alberta over the last several years and it will likely continue to trend that way.

However, he does urge the public to understand that most of Alberta's grasshopper species are beneficial to the ecosystem — especially to feed birds — and only five species are considered pests.

The grasshoppers that make noise, fly before June and have red, yellow, orange or black wings are not pests, says Johnson.

The province is conducting its annual grasshopper survey until the end of the month. The results, including a forecast for next summer, should be published in the new year.