What to Use to Kill Grasshoppers on Plants

Grasshoppers are noisy insects that like to infest vegetable gardens. While grasshoppers look innocent, they can harm plants by eating and destroying leaves. A large grasshopper population can destroy beautiful flowers and eat the vegetables in gardens. Organic and safe homemade sprays can be made from household items. Preferably use these sprays around dusk, as using them during hot times of day can burn plant leaves.

Grasshoppers have a hard shell which can make them resistant to some homemade insecticides. The waterproof, waxy coating on the insects' shells can be broken down with a soap mixture, while a combination of oil will smother them.

Mix a teaspoon each of cooking oil and liquid dishwashing soap with a quart of water for an effective spray. Shake the spray bottle well and cover plant leaves thoroughly, repeating the application every three days until grasshoppers are all dead.

An effective way to keep grasshoppers out of your garden is spraying a homemade mixture of ammonia and water. Mix equal parts of ammonia and water in a spray bottle and use it to spray directly on the insects. Never add bleach to your ammonia mix as this can cause a harmful chemical reaction.

Grasshoppers hate the smell and taste of garlic, so a garlic-oil mix works well as a homemade control spray. Chop finely six fresh garlic cloves and mix them with one tablespoon of mineral oil to make a homemade control spray.

The mixture will need to steep for 24 hours in a glass jar for maximum potency. Use a strainer or a piece of cheesecloth to strain the liquid, discarding the pieces of garlic afterward.

Dilute two tablespoons of garlic-infused oil with one pint of water and one teaspoon of dishwashing liquid. Spray your plants thoroughly with your homemade mixture, covering both top and bottom of plant leaves.

Homemade chili spray works well as a grasshopper repellent. Make a batch of the spray by blending a half cup of fresh chilis (habaneros will work as well) with two cups of water. Add a drop of dishwashing detergent to the liquid in order for it to stick to the leaves. Start by testing the spray on one leaf and wait 24 hours to see if the plant leaves are sensitive or burn. Spray the rest of the plants with this spray if no adverse reaction is noticed after 24 hours.

Organic gardeners have a natural way of controlling grasshoppers. Chickens are natural grasshopper predators, and introducing them to the garden means the chickens will eat the insects.

You can bring chickens closer to the plants by building a chicken run with a shared fence between the chook run and vegetable garden. This method allows chickens to roam into the garden and eat grasshoppers, but the chickens will not eat your plants.