Grasshoppers, which devour stems and flowers, love domestic crops like wheat but they also enjoy native grasses and weeds. (Getty Images)
The future of grasshopper and cricket control in Oregon is in the air after a district judge ruled against the overuse of pesticides by a federal agency.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez in U.S. District Court in Portland ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had failed to consider controlling the pests with methods other than pesticides as required by law. The USDA sprays pesticides on millions of acres in the West every year – including wide swaths of Oregon – to constrict the spread of insects, which can decimate crops and rangeland used by cattle.
Farmers have long struggled with the pests, with infestations rising in recent years. Southern and eastern Oregon have dealt with some of the worst plagues of grasshoppers in decades that have destroyed millions of acres of farmland and killed crops that fuels their livelihoods.