Achi news desk-
Grasshoppers are known for their ability to damage gardens and crops, and southern Albertans will likely have to deal with more this year.
“There is a general upward trend in the county and around the city, and that will continue,” said Dan Johnson, professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge.
Grasshoppers thrive in hot and dry conditions.
Although most people, plants and animals have been suffering in recent years from drought, grasshoppers have been thriving.
Spring rains can help keep grasshopper populations down.
Rain limits the grasshopper’s ability to grow when it is in its younger stages.
However, the heavy rain that southern Alberta is currently seeing came a little too early, according to Johnson.
“The immature stages of the grasshopper pest species are exposed to rain and mud and fungus, but they don’t emerge until late May and early June, and then they continue to incubate for another few weeks.”
Although the rain may not do much to help at the moment, there is still hope.
Long-term forecasts indicate that May and June could see more rain than in the last few years.
“Our long range forecasting models indicate that southern Alberta will likely be normal to above normal in May, and even into June.
“We’re seeing that kind of trend that we’re going to be getting rain storms,” ​​said Alysa Pederson, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada.
