Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today after quite a long absence, which I’ll explain. You may remember me from such posts as “More Midnight Striped Adventures”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
If it looks like it rained, that’s because it did, just today. It rained a little a couple of days ago, too.
That cage is to protect against grasshoppers.
In the weeks since my last post things here have been pretty awful, if you ask me. Every day was at least 95 F (35C), the air was filled with smoke from a fire not too far from here, and the grasshoppers have been horrible. Every time I walked out into the garden I was landed on several dozen times.
This is a grasshopper, if you didn’t know. It took the guy I live with most of his life to realize that a grasshopper was something that hopped on grass. Like a pancake was something cooked in a pan, and other things.
There’s certainly a lot of hopping here. It’s disgusting, if you ask me.
Take a look at what they did to the spindle tree, Euonymus europaeus.
They even chewed the bark.
The guy I live said he’s going to cut down the spindle tree, because it doesn’t belong in this garden. The leaves wilted all the time.
About ten days ago the guy I live with made a potion to repel the grasshoppers. He mashed three heads of garlic and boiled them for hours, with a little cayenne pepper, then steeped the potion overnight in the refrigerator, and then strained it.
This went into a spray bottle and was sprayed on some plants.
Then he got some Garlic Barrier, and he sprayed that. The smell is something else, believe me.
I’m not sure if it worked.
Besides the euonymus, the grasshoppers totally disfigured Yucca rostrata and Yucca pallida, defoliated all the echinops, Acanthus spinosus, Mentha longifolia, and Salvia darcyi (but not the other salvias growing next to the plants of darcyi).
Mostly they haven’t bother the native plants, or any plants with a lot of terpenes in them.
The guy I live with was pretty discouraged, even though it was too hot to go out into the garden to be discouraged, but the other day he went to a nursery and came back with some plants.
He found these at the nursery. He said he almost fell over when he saw these, because they’re native to the western slope here and need no watering at all after their first year, and plants that need no watering aren’t all that popular around here. There are some in the front yard that have been here for thirty-five years and are never watered, because they don’t need it.
These are Peraphyllum ramosissimum. There’s some controversy about the old common name, but a suggested new common name, “wild crab apple” makes people think of crab apples, and these aren’t crab apples. Same family, but not crab apples.
His wife drew this, in fruit, with a cecropia moth.
These have already been planted.
I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago the guy I live with found a toad in the middle of the street. A toad, of all things. He rescued it and put it in our garden.
And then just yesterday, on my walk, I saw a fox. That was the most interesting thing of all. The guy I live wouldn’t let me chase it, even though I really, really, really wanted to.
So that’s what we’ve been doing; roasting, and smelling garlic and smoke.
I think the rain helped put out the fire to the southwest of us. The guy I live with’s nephew is a firefighter and worked on one to the northwest of us.
Hopefully things will be better now.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
What about your absence?
Our last post was sixteen days ago.
Yes, but it was not explained.
It was.
You mean that your absence was due to things being really awful and hot there?
Yep.
Good Lord, those grasshoppers are really and truly a curse. We complain here of slugs and snails but the damage they do is no more than cosmetic. I read up on the “Wild Crab Apple” and it does produce a fruit which resembles a crabapple so the name is suitable.
The guy I live with says that “crab apple” makes people think of crab apples, which makes people think the wrong thing.
Kind of like in the northeast of the U.S. they call philadelphus “syringa”, for no logical reason.
The guy I live with read a letter from his great uncle who lived in Rhode Island, talking about how nice the syringas were, but he meant mockoranges, philadelphus.
So you don’t like to eat grasshoppers? We don’t get those big ones, but our dogs have enjoyed snacking on cicadas over the years.
Ceci
I’ve never tried them. The guy I live said not to, because you never know if they’ve been poisoned or not. (Not poisoned by us.)
Thanks for sharing your garlic recipe-seems like a bit of work. I’ve heard you can plant cilantro, horehound, calendula, lilac, forsythia, jasmine, and sage, to help repel grasshoppers when planted around the perimeter of a garden. There are no formal studies on how effective these plants are though.
Flour can work but I don’t like the way it looks-I want the garden to look natural, not like a pancake house. Sprinkling all-purpose flour on plant leaves is supposed to clog grasshoppers’ mouths and prevent them from eating. Just don’t use flour with salt, as it can harm plants.
I’ve been told garlic spray can suffocate grasshoppers and also nourish the soil. Garlic Barrier is a garlic-based repellent that can be used on plants and is safe for vegetables. The smell of garlic disappears within minutes, but the effects can last for weeks.
Neem oil can repel grasshoppers and prevents them from breeding and molting.
Vinegar however is probably my best go-to. When they’re on weeds, it’s easy to spray since grasshoppers will avoid vinegar’s acidity and the vinegar is a great herbicide but makes the yard smell a bit like a salad for a few days. Good luck. The ‘hoppers been horrid this hot summer. Maybe with El Nińo they’ll be less of a problem next year. 🤞🏼
The guy I live with said that if NoLo Bait were still available, that would work very well. His wife used it, last century, and it definitely had an effect.
He said he might do a post talking about what kind of plants had been eaten to the ground, besides the giant eunoymus. There’s another euonymus here, ‘Manhattan’, also very much out of place here, but untouched and thriving.
Beautiful drawing by your wife. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks, and you’re welcome.
Ferst mee an BellaSita want to meow how lovelee Guy’ss wife’ss paintin iss…shee was furry tallented. Guud Greef! All THE “hoppin” soundss scarey an UCKY!!! Mee wuud not wanna bee hopped on bye a bajillion Grassyhoppurrss! A few are cute….a bajillion NOT cute! An HURRAH fore Guy rescuin Rhoady Toady…maybee hee will feest on Grassyhoppurrss an a balance can bee acheeved rite Mani?? You saw a Fox? Kewl! Wee hope you get more rain an THE tempyturess go down so it iss comfy to due thingss! Yore fotss’ are so cute…..wee gettin sleepy heer! ***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks. The guy I live with’s wife was entirely self-taught.
We had about 4mm of rain yesterday, and it rained today, too. Not nearly as much as “they” said it would.
We’d need hundreds of toads in the garden for all the grasshoppers.The farmers in eastern Colorado are having a terrible time because of all the grasshoppers.
It was 69F today. Nice and cool. Next week isn’t supposed to be as hot as it’s been, too.
Guy’s wife was tallented even self tott! MMMM it has kewled off niclee fore all of us…wee had sum rain last nite an a short shower this mornin….it has been a weerd Summer hasn’t it Mani???
It has been really weird.
Two weerd! Mind you this time last yeer, wee had wildfiress all over Cantnada an wee cuud not go out fore more than 5 minutess…..
There was a lot of smoke here in the last couple of weeks. Very icky.
I can only imagine how intoxicating the scent of garlic would be combined with your neighbor’s detergent. One would imagine all your grasshoppers would leave immediately, but their spiracles seem to be made of sterner stuff than most mammalian nostrils. I imagine they don’t get asthma either. Wishing you and TMYLW the best of luck getting the Peraphyllums established. I’ve missed being out in the garden over the last three weekends and can only imagine the level of disaster that will greet me once I venture forth again. Disliking the heat and the smoke very much. Glad we don’t have grasshoppers yet.
The guy I live with said you probably couldn’t even smell the garlic when there’s smell from next door.(We expect to get new neighbors two doors down, eventually, so the smell from next door will almost certainly stop.)
It was 69F here yesterday, and the same today. Damp, too.
I wanted to walk through the tall grass this evening but when we turned around the guy I live with said there was a yellowjacket on my rear end. It got brushed off. Not as exciting as seeing a fox.
Wee herd sumthin about a Wildfire not two far away from youss’ Mani an Guy! Wee hope it iss out an all iss quiet an not smokey again….
There was one, about seven miles to the southwest of us, in the foothills. It’s not in the news any more, so maybe rain helped put it out.
THAT’SS THE fire wee heerd about! Glad it iss xtinguished Mani an Guy!
That was the one.
hey how is the tonic…… i ve lost so much and see them breeding carol
It’s hard to tell if it worked. The guy I live with bought some Garlic Barrier, and maybe that worked a little.
Thank you for that missive, Mani.
Thanks.