Grasshoppers confirm mild winter

Abstract

<p>If we use grasshoppers as a gauge of winter severity then the winter of 2001-2002 was certainly an insect-friendly winter. I <a href="http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm/2001/12-24-2001/lateghoppers.html">noted</a> in the December 2001 <em>Integrated Crop Management</em> newsletter that a few differential grasshoppers had survived around Ames until at least December 8. Typically, many of these grasshoppers are dead by early November. Then, on February 23 of this year, which was an unseasonably warm day, I found grasshopper nymphs in my garden. The time span between the last grasshopper of 2001 and the first grasshopper of 2002 was only 77 days.</p>