Rather than treat the symptoms, we need a systemic approach. All creatures have natural predators. When agribusiness plants a monocrop, like wine grapes and chemicalizes the field, it destroys those predators and invites pests to a banquet.
Grass is one of nature's treasures and agriculture's most valuable crops, though its importance is often over-looked in favor of value-added final products like wine. Protecting our grass is essential to the maintenance of a healthy food chain. Spraying bugs on the grass leads to the accumulation of toxins in the soil and plants, which move up the food chain to humans, according to scientists.
We need to ask the larger questions and consider what the grasshopper invasion symptom tells us about the health of nature and our food system. What has happened to the birds and rodents that usually prey on grasshoppers and the fungal diseases that keep the numbers of insects down? Such smaller critters are vulnerable to the pesticides used to kill unwanted insects. Beneficial insects - including bees, ladybugs, spiders and dragonflies - far outnumber pests and are also killed by pesticides.
The costs of spraying pesticides is much more than hiring an aerial sprayer and buying the chemicals. Most of the costs are hidden and include the worsened health of animals, plants, and humans. A few thousand dollars of pesticides can produce many thousands of dollars of medical care.
Grass is one of nature's treasures and agriculture's most valuable crops, though its importance is often over-looked in favor of value-added final products like wine. Protecting our grass is essential to the maintenance of a healthy food chain. Spraying bugs on the grass leads to the accumulation of toxins in the soil and plants, which move up the food chain to humans, according to scientists.
We need to ask the larger questions and consider what the grasshopper invasion symptom tells us about the health of nature and our food system. What has happened to the birds and rodents that usually prey on grasshoppers and the fungal diseases that keep the numbers of insects down? Such smaller critters are vulnerable to the pesticides used to kill unwanted insects. Beneficial insects - including bees, ladybugs, spiders and dragonflies - far outnumber pests and are also killed by pesticides.
The costs of spraying pesticides is much more than hiring an aerial sprayer and buying the chemicals. Most of the costs are hidden and include the worsened health of animals, plants, and humans. A few thousand dollars of pesticides can produce many thousands of dollars of medical care.