Albuquerque Grasshopper Swarms Detected By Weather Radar

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Grasshoppers on the West Mesa show up on weather radar

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Grasshoppers are so abundant on the West Mesa this week that they are showing up on National Weather Service radar.

At least, grasshoppers are the most likely explanation for “weird radar echoes” that have shown up the last three nights, said Jason Frazier, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

“This is the most logical expanation we have come up with,” Frazier said Friday. “We knew pretty quickly it wasn’t rain.”

Radar images posted on the agency’s website Thursday night show clusters of grasshoppers in areas west of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho and north of Interstate 40.

Unusually large number of grasshoppers have appeared in the Albuquerque metro area, prompting complaints from property owners to city and county officials.

The Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service said early this month that favorable conditions for grasshoppers have led to a population explosion this year.

The insects aren’t dangerous but can defoliate trees, shrubs and gardens, officials said.

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 2,336 • Replies: 11

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Our dogs are going crazy as they keep trying to chase and catch all the grasshoppers in our yard.

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@Butrflynet,

Don't let them do that. They are very rough on the throat. Dangerously so.

I was in Rio Rancho yesterday afternoon and didn't see a thing.

1 Reply

@roger,

They've been swarming here for about a month now. When you walk outside it sends up clouds of grasshoppers as you step. In the early evenings there are so many crawling around on the gravel landscaping, it looks like the rocks are moving.

They've just about eaten every leaf of my lettuce and peas plants.

I've got my bedroom window open as I write and the cricket chirping is so loud it reminds me of a summertime visit to my cousin's house in Massachusetts over near the cranberry bogs.

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This news report and the amateur videos show how bad it is.

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We had them last week in our neighborhood. They ate every leaf of my long nursed young desert willow tree that I had raised from being a volunteer seedling. The good news is I saw two new leaves on it yesterday.

I looked up what to do - some tv link told me to dust plants with flour, something about the hoppers not being able to swallow it. That wasted flour and annoyed the plants. That site also said an alternate thing to do was to put some kind of screening over the plants. I put cheese cloth over the desert willow but that was already when it was leaf-bereft. That might have saved these new budding leaves (I took the cheesecloth off yesterday).

Hoping the grasshoppers are through here.

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@ossobuco,

Jiminy Cricket!

1 Reply

@Ragman,

I have one of those too. My duplex place is not totally sealed and fixing the doors would be costly. So, every year about this time I get a cricket family in the kitchen. Usually behind the refrigerator or stove, seemingly just one that makes the noise. They venture out one at a time. So far, that is bad for their health, but one of these days I may try to catch 'em in a bottle.

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@ossobuco,

Not that this is a plague but I get a tree frog or 2 that pops in the door every now and then..much to my JB ( small poodle's) delight. She and I have fun catching it. actually I have to get it before she does...or else.

Outside the door in so FL, the place is like a terrarium with lizards, etc. of coursed, where there's so many lizards running about and small wildlife there's quite a collection of snakes. Luckily most of the them, are benign or avoid this neck of the woods but I don't go into the fields. when I have gone in the fields, I wear long pants and tie down the cuffs.

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@Ragman,

I think they're cute - have only seen one once, back in CA. I really should put the crickets back outside if I can nab them.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

that's no easy task. Once inside, they do a great job of hiding. I once had a pet that would find them but there'd not be much left once he found it.

Oops..are you talking about tree frogs?

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@Ragman,

No, the cricket. Haven't heard her yet today.. She'll probably come out from behind the fridge to get some water in the middle of the night.

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Albuquerque Grasshopper Swarms Detected By Weather Radar

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