Los Angeles yards, parks, and hillside stretches are crawling with more grasshoppers than usual this spring — and local entomologists say there’s a clear reason why, and a simple message for worried gardeners: relax.
According to LAist, the spike is directly tied to the unusually wet winter Southern California experienced, followed by the recent heatwave. Those back-to-back weather events created ideal conditions for grasshopper eggs to hatch and young insects to thrive.
Eric Middleton, an entomologist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources who works in pest management and is based in San Diego, broke it down simply. “For a grasshopper population to grow, you need a wet winter or spring so there’s a lot of vegetation growing,” he said. “Then you need warm conditions, which allow the young grasshoppers to emerge.”…