Why are there so many grasshoppers in Arizona now?
As the summer approaches, many Phoenix homeowners are preparing for the seasonal and native pests that the Valley presents. With this preparation, residents will again go about their annual monsoon procedure — with this year adding a new critter to the top of their pest control service list: grasshoppers.
The Arizona monsoon season starts approximately in June and continues through September. Since 2008, the established dates from the National Weather Service are from June 15 through Sept. 30.
The monsoon may not promise more rain, but the recent wet winter that Arizona experienced has caused many grasshoppers to migrate to southern wetlands from northern grasslands, according to pest control experts.
"(The grasshoppers) are able to reproduce better because there's more of a water source, the lakes are filling up," Brandin Bear, Frontino Pest Control founder, said. "There's plenty of natural water in the desert and the main thing is that there's a food source. If you look (outside), the desert is a lot more green right now than it normally is, and the grasshoppers are feeding off of all that plant life."
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"A lot of these bugs eat off of weeds and decaying plant matter," Bear added. "The increasing rain created a lot more vegetation, and when the food source and the moisture is right you get all sorts of bugs hatching more than they would in previous years."
With a plethora of common "summer pests" being harmful and destructive to people, Phoenix residents do not have to fear grasshoppers as much, as Bear describes them as "not (going) to be like a severe impact right now... more just a nuisance, but we're not seeing populations to where we're concerned about crops or anything yet."
Pest control companies are currently in the process of constructing repelling barricades in hopes of minimizing their growth come the summer. Bear has his own strategy in mind in hopes of flattening the curve.
"We lay down a barrier of our product around the base of the home and the edges of the property line, as well as in areas where they might harbor pieces of trees and bushes, and our products are microencapsulated, so once the grasshopper walks over, they interact with the product and it'll start decreasing the population.
Due to the potent dryness in May, grasshoppers will likely migrate back but should return for residence to keep an eye out for later this upcoming summer.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Grasshoppers in Phoenix: What to know ahead of the monsoon
