Grasshoppers may also feed on soybean pods, especially during dry years. Drought conditions that reduce natural vegetation will force grasshoppers to move into cultivated fields. In no-till fields it is important to scout for grasshoppers from cotyledon stage to first trifoliate. Under no-till conditions grasshoppers may occur very early in the season and be distributed across the field. For conventional tilled fields grasshoppers usually are not a problem until mid-summer but will be present all season.
Grasshoppers tend to be more of a problem during dry weather.
Grasshopper populations are very hard to estimate. When counting grasshoppers in a field do not walk in a straight line. Change the direction of your walk as you count so that the grasshoppers do not continually jump in front of you causing an overestimation of the population. Watch for large numbers of hoppers as you move through the field and watch for defoliation . The number of sites you need to examine in a field is based on the size of the field.