Palmer is hopping

In downtown Palmer, the grasshoppers are hard to ignore. They are stuck to the side of buildings, gathered in small heaps on the sidewalks and flying through the air with their noisy whir of wings.

But out on the Springer Loop road system, it's even worse. Roadways are littered with both the living and dead. The insects are everywhere -- clinging to vehicles, crawling beneath screen doors and eating their way across gardens and lawns. Having hatched out of the silty riverbed of the Matanuska River earlier this summer and recently sprouted their wings, the grasshoppers are moving their way into Palmer, and people living closest to the river are getting hit the hardest.

"They're here. They're hopping around everywhere," said Nada Reed. As she walked across her Palmer yard toward her garden, grasshoppers jumped and flew in front of her. Originally from Texas, Reed said she never even noticed grasshoppers as a problem up here, until this year.

So far the munching swarm has only injured her rhubarb and left the garden alone. Her husband is frequently watering their strawberries and vegetables, and Reed said she suspects the dampness is a deterrent to the grasshoppers.

Many of her neighbors have been looking for similar ways to stop the invasion. In a state that prides itself on having few insects beside the pesky mosquito, this summer's infestation has sparked close to 100 calls to the Cooperative Extension Service in Palmer.

"Just like us, they prefer the young, succulent salad greens," Pam Compton, integrated pest management specialist with the service, said of the grasshoppers' voracious appetite.

Most people, like the Reeds, are finding that the insects cause little or no damage as they move through. A few homeowners, though, have not been as lucky. Compton said she has heard from those who have lost entire gardens and newly hydroseeded lawns. Perhaps the strangest story she has heard was from a homeowner who says the insects have resorted to eating the paint on the exterior of the house.

Compton agrees with those who say this is the worst grasshopper year in recent memory, and she blames milder winters that aren't killing off as many of the eggs.

But Jack Stahancyk, who lives off Outer Springer Loop within eyesight of the Matanuska River, said he doesn't think this year is much worse, if at all, than two years ago. That summer, he said, the grasshoppers were on the side of his house "as thick as hair on a dog's back."

"I don't pay much attention to them …. but my wife gets a little frustrated with them," he said.

Just down the street, however, neighbor Joseph Gilmore says there are more grasshoppers this summer than he has seen in the past two decades.

"They've started in on my raspberry bushes," he said, but added that the insects seem to be leaving the rest of his yard alone. He has been keeping his lawn grass cut short and hopes that will keep them in check.

Whether this is the worst infestation of recent years or not, the fact remains the same -- there isn't much to be done.

"I don't do grasshoppers," said Rocco Moschetti, who owns Integrated Pest Management of Alaska. "There's not much you can do."

If the infestation were more localized, a gardener or homeowner could use insecticides or bait equipped with a natural pathogen to kill off the grasshoppers, he said. These options are often expensive, slow acting and not without their downsides. And in the case of Palmer's grasshoppers, in which a large area is infested, there will only be more to move in.

Moschetti said that, like the Cooperative Extension, he is receiving phone calls from people wanting advice. In general, he is telling people to just ride it out.

"And I've got a great recipe for fried locusts," he said. "You pull off the heads, wings and legs and sautŽ them with a little garlic and butter."

When asked if he had tested the recipe, he laughed and said, "No, I haven't actually tried it."

Whether it's hosing down the garden, mowing the lawn everyday or gathering up buckets of the grasshoppers for a barbecue, the outcome will most likely be the same -- the grasshoppers will come and then they will go.

"It's not a plague of Biblical proportions," Moschetti said. "This too shall pass."