Fact Sheets Field Guide Contents Link directly to photos of adults , nymphs , or eggs . The Carolina grasshopper, a large bandwinged species, ranges widely in North America inhabiting weedy grasslands. Blowouts, field margins, roadside strips, weedy fence rows, railway cuttings, and disturbed rangeland support moderate populations of this species. During the day when temperatures warm, the adults move from vegetated to bare areas such as dirt roads where they fly about and become highly conspicuous. The Carolina grasshopper is a minor pest of rangeland grasses.
Populations occur chiefly in disturbed areas where it feeds mainly on several species of weeds.
The populations that irrupt in favorable habitats, however, may disperse and damage crops. Disturbed areas reseeded with smooth brome foster large numbers of this species, which not only feed on the brome but often fly to fields of fall wheat where they cause stand damage. An outbreak of the Carolina grasshopper that irrupted in southern Saskatchewan in 1933 and 1934 caused considerable damage to the crops of this region. In some years the species has damaged tobacco in southern Ontario. It has also been recorded as causing minor damage to alfalfa.