I'm down in Corpus, and I'm wondering whether you have any grackles in
Austin, as the females do a darn good job of eating the bugs in my yard.
They just march back and forth through the grass all day. I even saw one of
them grab a cicada right out of the air a few days ago. Between the
grackles, sparrows, and spiders, I don't have to poison any bugs.
Taking them (the grasshoppers) fishing sounds like a great idea, though I
empathize with the person who doesn't like to handle them. If there are any
neighbor-kids, I'm sure they'd round up some grasshoppers for you.

Windy in Corpus

"whit" wrote in message ...
well not quite an invasion, but in the last few weeks they've done quite
a number on one of my palmetto's, some wisteria, and a few other plants,
but most everything else seems OK. I suspect a deficiency causing them
to go after these plants as we have two palmettos within 5 ft of each
other one got hit pretty hard, one seems unscathed.

The worst of it was when I was out of town for a week, I caught 5 big
hoppers off one of the palmettos in about 5 minutes the day I got back-
they're In a jar and I'm going fishing soon )

Any suggestions on getting a handle on these buggers, yesterday I went
out and had a half dozen more jump out of my way as I walked thru my
yard.

Thanks