Grasshopper Life Cycle

• Four species of grasshopper in North America cause 90 percent of crop damage.Jeffrey Hamilton/Lifesize/Getty Images
  
  Of the hundreds of grasshopper species, only four are known to cause crop damage to cultivated crops in the United States, according to Alan H. Roe, an insect diagnostician at Utah State University. These four species of differential, two-striped, red-legged, and migratory grasshopper species are all regarded as pests.
  
  In autumn, females deposit up to 25 pods, each with as many as 100 eggs, in undisturbed soil. These eggs winter over and hatch into nymphs from late May through early July. Nymphs pass through a series of growth stages before they eventually grow wings and become adults.
  
  Egg pods are susceptible to fungal diseases associated with wet springs which in normal years naturally reduce the grasshopper population before hatching. Young nymphs are also vulnerable to the environment as well as disease, natural predators and parasites. The dry weather years of the 1930's, created perfect conditions for the grasshopper to hatch, develop, thrive and multiply.
  
  

Climate in the 1930s

• Drought covered more than 60 percent of the U.S. in 1934.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The National Climatic Data Center reports that the nation's most devastating drought occurred in the 1930s during what many refer to as the Dust Bowl years. The drought affected almost the entire Plains and covered more than 60 percent of the United States during its peak in July 1934. Intense heat for weeks in a row caused rivers and streams to dry up. Winds swept through the barren fields creating clouds of dust that filled the sky, blocking out the sun. Birds and predators fled in search of better conditions, leaving the tremendous grasshopper population unimpeded.
  
  

Feeding Habits of Grasshoppers

• Grasshoppers are leaf-eating insects.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Grasshoppers are considered leaf eating insects, however when there is a shortage of food, they also devour the stems, flowers, seeds and fruits of field crops and garden produce. With heavy infestations, grasshoppers can defoliate trees and shrub and destroy perennials by feeding down to the roots. A typical grasshopper can eat more than 16 times its own weight. It both jumps and flies, making it a migratory insect able to travel to wherever the food is.
  
  

Grasshopper Devastation

• According to an article by G. J. HaeussleIn in "Library for Farming," at the height of the Dust Bowl in 1936, crop losses caused by grasshoppers in the U.S. were valued at more than $100 million in 14 states. Grasshoppers destroyed more than half the crop the Plains farmers were able to produce. Individual reports claim that swarms of grasshoppers did not stop with crops but ate through wood and even clothing. When they stripped an area clean, they moved on in swarms, like black clouds, to the next feeding grounds.