grasshoppers everywhere in WA

Tomatoes so many leaves, so little time. ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






lucky it's only the fennel. ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






pumpkin flowers apparently taste great ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






Potatoes in the nude! ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )



My bumper crop turned into food for grasshoppers. The chooks are all full, and no longer chase after them. Now, they just sit where they are, and eat the grasshoppers who venture too close. Next year, Guinea Fowl!

moderator's note: moved topic to more appropriate forum

 

wow deb! amazing pics. i think guineas would have a field day there!

 

I think I would give up gardening if that happened to me on a regular basis.

 

I have never seen so many grasshoppers in one spot. The only pests I have right now are the squirrels who are hogging the birdseed but at least they are cute.

 

Thanks for the pics. I can't think of a more graphic display. It's sort of chilling to see how thorough they are.
I sure hope that you can find an effective way to combat them.

 

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement.
Unfortunately the only way I can think of to discourage them involves spraying the whole area, and I'm not prepared to do that. The only place I have seen where there are absolutely no grasshoppers, was the place I bought Guinea fowl eggs from, as they had about 60 guinea fowl free ranging through the paddocks surrounding the patch. These unique creatures forage for miles around their home, and love grasshoppers. I'm hoping some of the eggs hatch out to grow to mature birds before next season. I had been told that they do get to plague proportions every few years, but this is quite a normal size attack. They do get much worse than this one. Hopefully not next year, before I get a chance to breed more birds.




january 2010 grasshopper damage ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






pumpkins getting to higher ground ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






january 2010 after grasshopper damage ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )

 

Hiya Deb,
It looks like your garden has a nice lay-out--sectioned off with wood and some raised beds.
I can recognize some of the crops that you have growing there.
What the grasshoppers have done there is alarming, I must say. I was thinking that the corn looked pretty good, but then I saw what looked like an ear that was shredded.
Do you guys also have trouble with galas? When I visited Oz I saw great flocks of them...and in one place I was speaking with a lady and she showed me her roses and other garden plants which had been devistated by them.
The single Rhode Island Red appears to have found a couple more 'hoppers.

How large will that pumpkin get to be? It already looks as if it could be quite heavy.

Do you do anything special to the ground in your garden plots during your winter? I am thinking in terms of exposing the grasshopper eggs/larvae in the soil. Of course there will be many more out in the lawn and so forth, but the soil in your plots is easy to manage.

...and then I saw your auto peeking around the corner of that building and my eyes fell upon the roo-bar.
Immediately my mind drifted back to my visit there. I will never forget the surprize when I discovered the roo-bar. I think that practically every vehicle that I saw there had one. The VW camper that I bought had one with lights on it and I recall that I had to get a safety inspection once and in the state where I was they were not allowed and for the inspection I had just put a sock over each light in order to come through the inspection.
I always wondered if the inspectors were just being nice to me (because I was a visitor) or if covering the lights simply was legally sufficient.
I was disappointed about having to get that inspection. I had bought the camper in Darwin, you see and the car had three months left on the inspection that was running out.
Well, I have some exceptionally good memories of my six month stay there a few years ago. In fact I have been to Busselton and got a bit of a tour from a chap that I had met on a campground off in another part of Australia.

 

cockies enjoying the bird bath ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






magpie enjoying a sprinkler ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )



Thanks Sjoerd, yes we do have bird damage from cockies, but they're just so beautiful on the wing. There's no bird in captivity who looks as beautiful as one in the wild, in it's normal habitat.
Unfortunately, my roses are NOT their natural habitat, so now I just have to work out how to let them know! We do have a lot of white cockies in Busselton these days. They're native to WA, but usually live up north. Now though, they've decided this is the place to be all year through, and love to pick out the nicest pieces of your lawn, the ones right down under the soil. They make quite a mess of a nice lawn. Doesn't worry me though, as we don't have a nice lawn, but plenty of birds.
The pumpkin is a Queensland blue, which grows to about 30cm across, and 25cm deep across the widest part. It's the first time I've grown them, so I'll let you know how they go when they're finished growing.

In answer to you query about the legality of the sock covering the lights on the roobar, it is legally sufficient to put a sock over it. Crazy, huh?

I've posted two pics, taken from the front verandah of the house, looking out to the driveway. The bird bath sits in the middle of a tyre, which has been cut in half to allow water to sit in it. The dog drinks there, the birds bathe, and whenever they need a drink, hundreds of my bees come and go. We do not annoy them. They are armed!
As you can see, the little magpie in the second picture is quite wet. They have taken to asking for the sprinklers to be put on. When that happens, we make a cuppa, and sit on the verandah to watch the show. First it was only magpies, one in particular who loved to fluff his feathers up in the sprinkler. Then, after he showed others, there were heaps of magpies. The next year they showed cockies, andnow it's a free for all. Lovely!!

 

Ohhh...I'm sorry to hear about you having trouble with cockies. I guess that it's to be expected, and no doubt a widespread problem.
Well, actually I'd be willing to trade a beautiful lawn for lots of birds...and you guys have such a variety of what seems to me to be 'exotic' birds. I mean in cities where we would have flocks of pigeons or house sparrows, you have flocks of wonderfully-coloured parrots or parakeets or finches.

It was nice to see the fotos of the magpie and the green ringnecked parrots. You are right about birds being prettiest when viewed in their natural habitat.
They leaned quickly about the water didn't they. I recall there was a campground up in Queensland, I believe where there was a large flock of resident Lorikeets and folks could feed them. The owners of the campground turnrd the water sprinklers on for a few minutes a couple of times a day and if one was there before the sprinkling he could see them coming in by the droves. They sure liked that sprinkling!
You guys have it nice being able to turn the sprinkler on and sit on your verrandah to watch. What a luxury.

You mentioned bees--tell me about your bees.

 

what beautiful birds debbie! the colors are so striking!

good catch on the roobar sjoerd. i didn't see it till you mentioned it. never heard of them before!

we grew Queensland Blue last year and it was deliscious! we'll be growing it again this year. i thought it was more of a winter squash than pumpkin, yet, you can intermingle the two in recipes.

 

me foolishly trying to nick some honey ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






bees taking it back!!! ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )






every spot on these overall legs are stings ( photo / image / picture from debbieteale's Garden )



Bees, well a couple of years ago I was privelidged enough to watch a beekeeper removing some hives from a derelict house on our property. These bees were quiet, friendly, and not the least bit worried about us being there. So..... after much badgering I managed to get this beekeeper to let me have a hive for my family vege plot. Unfortunately, these bees are nasty. They're fine until you try to get into their home. (can't imagine why....) I am still very new at nicking honey from bees, so I've probably got a lot to learn. The first thing I'm going to do is to buy a pair of Wellies, because all was fine until the little buggers found a weak spot in my outfit. Socks! Everywhere else was double layers, but the socks were single. They found them, and I was stung hundreds of times. Luckily, most pulled out immediately, so very little venom was injected, but when I decided to cut and run to get away, the ones between the sock, and the sides of the boot (blundstone work boots) were forced into the skin. Ouch. I had about 10 stings which swelled up painfully on both ankles, and I immediately decided to just close up the hive, stood under a sprinkler (bees don't like water!) till they all left me alone, then stripped off in the shower, washed off any excess venom and headed straight for the antihistamine. I was very sleepy all afternoon (I was playing with the bees about 9am) but no real allergic reaction. As my poor long suffering husband is really allergic to bees, he knew what to look for. We live about 25mins from a large hospital, so if it got worse, I wasn't going to be a hero. It took a couple of days to wear off properly, and it's been over a week now, I still have to go back inand finish the job.
Anyone wanna help?

By the way, the honey is to die for!

 

ouch debbie! i can't believe the pics of the suit with all the stingers! amazing! glad you're ok!

 

Gosh, you certainly lead a busy, thrilling life! I'm still trying to digest all your info here, but my head's buzzing a bit too much.