For a variety of reasons, grasshopper populations cycle naturally from season to season, causing extensive damage during outbreak years. Annually, grasshopper problems tend to increase as summer progresses and usually continue even after the first frost occurs.
Grasshoppers favor feeding on certain vegetable plants as lettuce, carrots and onions.
Among the shrubs and trees damaged by grasshoppers, conifers usually are avoided. However, during years when grasshoppers are extremely abundant and food is scarce, they feed on almost all plants. Grasshoppers may nibble on foliage and tender bark of trees and shrubs causing considerable injury over the course of a season. Established trees and shrubs tolerate this leaf loss and these plants usually recover, and suffer little long-term injury. As the plants in these areas dry out or are eaten, the grasshoppers move to the lusher growth found in yards and gardens.