Grasshoppers are common insects found in various outdoor environments. These herbivores primarily consume plant matter. Understanding what attracts them helps explain their presence.
Preferred Food Sources
Grasshoppers are primarily herbivorous, consuming a wide range of plants to meet their nutritional needs. They are particularly drawn to young, green vegetation, including various grasses and small grains. Specific crops that grasshoppers favor include rye, barley, cotton, corn, alfalfa, and wheat. Beyond cultivated fields, they also readily consume native grasses, weeds, flowers, and leaves found in their environment.
Garden vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, beans, sweet corn, and onions are also among their preferred foods. While some grasshopper species may be selective, many will feed on nearly any plant they encounter. Their voracious appetites mean a single grasshopper can consume up to 16 times its body weight in crops daily. Grasshoppers tend to concentrate their feeding along field edges and grass waterways, generally avoiding areas with dense plant canopies. If preferred food sources become scarce, such as after crop harvest or during drought conditions, grasshoppers will migrate in search of new vegetation.
Ideal Environmental Conditions
Grasshoppers thrive in warm, sunny, and relatively dry conditions, which are optimal for their activity, development, and survival. As cold-blooded insects, warmer temperatures allow them to metabolize more efficiently, leading to increased feeding and faster growth rates. Warm and dry spring weather particularly favors the successful hatching of eggs and subsequent growth of nymphs. Conversely, prolonged periods of cool temperatures below 65°F and heavy rainfall, especially during the early hatching stage, can result in significant mortality among young grasshoppers.
These insects prefer open, grassy areas, rangelands, and fields that receive ample sunlight. Patches of bare ground are attractive as basking sites, where grasshoppers can absorb solar radiation to elevate their body temperature. Such environments provide warmth and suitable areas for their daily activities. Untilled areas that feature a mix of grasses and broadleaf plants, such as vacant lots, ditches, and pastures, also serve as suitable habitats. During dry summer months, irrigated areas can draw grasshoppers from surrounding drier landscapes.
Suitable Breeding Grounds
Female grasshoppers are attracted to specific environments for laying their eggs, which are deposited in protective pods within the soil. They typically seek out undisturbed, relatively dry soil. Preferred egg-laying sites frequently include non-tilled areas like grasslands, pastures, ditches, and the margins of fields. Some species show a preference for laying eggs in soil that is surrounded by grass roots, while others opt for more open areas with surface debris.
Sandy or loamy soil types are often favored for oviposition due to their texture. The female grasshopper digs a hole, deposits a batch of eggs, and then covers them with a frothy liquid that hardens into a protective pod. This pod insulates the eggs and helps ensure their survival. A single female can lay approximately 100 eggs during the summer and fall, distributed across 7 to 30 pods. These soil and habitat characteristics are sought to maximize species continuation.