Back to top Grasshoppers Grasshoppers may occasionally feed upon the borders of wheat fields. Damage to fields is usually restricted to small areas, so spot spraying may control populations. The Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor, recently has become a major factor limiting wheat production throughout the southern United States. Hessian fly does not attack oats but can develop on some grasses such as little barley and wild rye grasses. Adult Pupae Adult Hessian flies are small black flies about the size of a mosquito.
Adults live for about two days, during which time they mate.
Females lay about 200 eggs in the grooves of the upperside of wheat leaves. Eggs are orange-red, V32 inch long and hatch in three to five days. Newly hatched larvae move down the leaf groove beyond the leaf sheath to the stem where they begin to feed at the base of the leaf. Maggots become white after the first molt and appear greenish-white when fully grown. Maggots suck sap and stunt tillers, possibly by injecting a toxin into the plant.