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Grasshoppers/Locusts - Are they are current threat in the US

Do grasshoppers/locusts cause significant damage to crops in the US? I tried searching for incidences but only found them in the distant past in the midwest and west. Which species may be of concern in the US if any? Anything specific to Maryland of concern or confirmation of no concern would be helpful. Any historical information related to Maryland would also be helpful.

We have cicadas here in Maryland and people think of them as locusts, which of course they are not. I run a local facebook nature page and I am hoping to assist people in admiring nature, both cicadas and grasshoppers. I don't see either as a threat, but I need more information.

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Contributed by eaglebeach on 26 May, 2021 - 2:52pm

Second possibility

Agreed with everything metrioptera said. There's always potential for US species of Schistocerca to form a giant swarm, but this is very very rare. Even then, I can't see it becoming an issue in Maryland.

Really the only threat grasshoppers could be to US agriculture would be if a non-native species of cyrtacanthacridine (I guess you'd call those the real locusts?) made it to the US, either through a swarm that comes up from Mexico into south Texas (Schistocerca piceifrons, or through products being imported from other countries. Even then, I'd say the risk to Maryland is low.

… Tyler Hedlund, 27 May, 2021 - 3:59pm

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Dissosteira species, particul

Dissosteira species, particularly D. longipennis, also have a gregarious phase and may swarm.

… Hexapoda, 27 May, 2021 - 6:26pm

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hoppers

There are a few species (e.g. Melanoplus differentialis, M. bivittatus, M. femurrubrum, Camnula pellucida, etc) that cause damage to crops mainly in the Great Plains and western states. In the east grasshoppers are usually not abundant enough to cause damage. The only U.S. grasshopper species with a proper locust swarming phase was Melanoplus spretus, but it went extinct around 1902, leaving North America as the only continent missing a major locust pest species (also Antarctica of course, but that doesn't count).

In Maryland you might have a few species like M. differentialis causing some minor damage to crops, but probably nothing substantial.

info on the BG page for M. spretus: https://bugguide.net/node/view/98442

… metrioptera, 26 May, 2021 - 3:30pm

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Thank you!

*

… eaglebeach, 26 May, 2021 - 4:01pm

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