FishingBanter - View Single Post - Grasshoppers or the lack of them in the Pacific NW

Kevin Vang · November 30th, 2005, 05:15 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

In article , says...
This season
there seemed to be very few.

Anyone have an idea why?

Did you have a lot of rain in the spring and early summer? Their
eggs usually hatch more successfully in dry weather. That happened
here in ND -- we had several very dry summers in a row, with grasshopper
populations approaching biblical plague levels, and the last two
summers were very cool and wet, and the hopper populations are way
down.

Interestingly enough, when we have really wet years, we have amphibian
population booms. This last summer there were toads everywhere, but in
years past it was chorus frogs and tiger salamanders. I don't know if
they are enough to make a significant difference in the amount of
grasshoppers, but I'm sure that they contribute. Frogs are pretty
impressive predators. The kids have kept them in aquaria occasionally
and fed them hoppers and crickets and such. Lemme tell ya, if frogs
were the size of wolves, you wouldn't dare go wading in the stream.

Kevin