The Grasshopper Incident

King of Denmark is a wonderful heirloom spinach that performs nicely.  One look at the mature plants and you will easily see why this variety is king just from the sheer size of it.  A few days ago I noted that the King of Denmark spinach was looking rather good.  Then I noticed that something had been helping itself to a taste test.  A couple of days later I found the critter responsible for the damage.

The damage on the King of Denmark spinach was indicative of a chewing insect.  There was evidence of insect frauss as well.   I kept an eye on the spinach to see what was eating it.  It took a couple of days but I finally caught the little critter, a grasshopper.

Grasshoppers have not been a huge problem in my gardens.  While I have had a small amount of damage due to grasshoppers for the most part it has been minimal.  They can do a fair amount of damage in a short period of time.  Grasshoppers tend to be more problematic during drier summers so I'm not surprised to see them leaving their mark in the garden this year.

Catching the grasshopper red handed was nice because I was easily able to identify the damaging causing insect.  I captured the offending critter and put him into time out in a grasshopper jail cell.  I thought it was a rather fitting punishment.  It was obvious he could not stay where he was!  Manual removal of any offending garden pest is always my first choice wherever possible. 

I've been checking the garden for more signs of grasshopper damage.  So far I haven't found any so this appears to be an isolated incident.  Since the problem is not widespread I will continue to use the manual removal method. 

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010