MOUNT DORA BUZZ
  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business & Real Estate
    • Outdoor Life
    • Government & Education
    • Real Estate Buzz
    • Kindness Matters
    • Health & Wellness
    • Profiles
    • Newsworthy
    • What's Hot...
    • Who Knew?
  • Calendar
  • Festivals & Events
    • Holiday Event Guide
    • Annual Festivals
    • Monthly Events
  • The Best of....
    • Best of Mount Dora
    • Best of Eustis
    • Best of Tavares
    • Best of Mount Dora Take-out
  • Things to Do
  • Dining
  • Live Music
  • Lodging
  • Photos
    • Doors of Mount Dora
    • City Scenes
    • Views from Above
    • Palm Island Boardwalk
    • July 4th Americana
    • Vintage Photos
    • Donnelly House
    • Sydonie Mansion
    • The Howey Mansion
  • History
  • Mobile App
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Contact
    • News Desk
    • Advertising Inquiries
    • Writing Services & Content Marketing
    • Design Services
    • Submit Pic of the Day
  • Subscribe

Outdoor Life

THEY'RE BACK!  EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THESE CREATURES

4/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s up for debate.  Are they creepy creatures or the stunning work of nature? One thing is for sure, if you love your garden, Eastern Lubber grasshoppers aren’t your friends.

Here’s everything you need to know about these oversized, lumbering grasshoppers that invade Florida yards in the spring and summer:
  • These giants are unable to fly and are clumsy jumpers, so they take to climbing plants and trees to forage on new growth at the tips of branches. 
  • The colors of Eastern Lubbers vary drastically as they age.  The immature insects, called nymphs, look like a different species from the adults.  When the young ones first emerge on plants, they are solid black with a red stripe and only about half an inch long.  
  • The nymphs tend to congregate in groups on plants, so where there is one, there are typically several.  
  • As these grasshoppers age and molt several times, they become black with a yellow stripe before their final yellow and brown coloring with red under their wings.  Adults measure two to three inches long and have a thick body.   
  • As much as gardeners despise them, lizards and birds don’t care for them either.  When alarmed, lubbers spread their wings, hiss, and can expel a fine toxic spray that makes them unappetizing.  
  • Shortly after the brown and yellow adults emerge, the mature females begin laying clusters of pods with 30 to 80 eggs in each.  The busy females can lay egg pods every two weeks.
  • Eggs take about 200 days to develop and hatch from the ground in early spring.   
  • The highest number of adult Eastern Lubbers in Florida is typically found in July and August​
How the heck do you get rid of them?
Gardeners that come across these robust pests know that managing them is a difficult challenge.  The smaller black nymphs can be controlled by spraying an insecticide like Raid directly on them. However, as these Lubbers grow, their exterior becomes harder and more resistant to sprays.  The yellowish adults are incredibly hardy, so gardeners are left with the unenviable task of removing them from plants manually and putting a shoe to them or placing them in a resealable plastic bag with a cotton ball soaked in acetone (nail polish remover) to be discarded.  
Gardeners can also use bran bait containing corn oil and insecticide to attract and kill lubbers. However, these big grasshoppers are less likely to eat bait if there’s attractive vegetation in the area. 
 
Another option is to spray a pyrethroid insecticide directly on the mature lubbers.  Other insecticides used on lubber grasshoppers with varying results include spinosad, carbaryl, permethrin, bifenthrin, and cyhalothrin. 
Here’s some useless facts on Eastern Lubbers:
  • Lubbers bright color pattern is believed to be a warning to predators that they aren’t palatable.
  • These large insects are widely used in biology classes for dissection.
  • Male and female lubbers make noise by rubbing  their wings together.
  • “Lubber” is derived from an old English word “lobre” which means lazy or clumsy. 
  • Eastern lubbers are found from North Carolina to Florida, and west to central Texas.
There are two  different names for the same species, a Romalea microptera (Palisot de Beauvois) and Romalea guttata (Houttuyn). ​​

​
For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, this month, click here.  Discover the area's online entertainment calendar here. Also download the area's free mobile app.  ​​​​
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    outdoor life

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Terms of Use
Copyright Mount Dora Buzz 2021



  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business & Real Estate
    • Outdoor Life
    • Government & Education
    • Real Estate Buzz
    • Kindness Matters
    • Health & Wellness
    • Profiles
    • Newsworthy
    • What's Hot...
    • Who Knew?
  • Calendar
  • Festivals & Events
    • Holiday Event Guide
    • Annual Festivals
    • Monthly Events
  • The Best of....
    • Best of Mount Dora
    • Best of Eustis
    • Best of Tavares
    • Best of Mount Dora Take-out
  • Things to Do
  • Dining
  • Live Music
  • Lodging
  • Photos
    • Doors of Mount Dora
    • City Scenes
    • Views from Above
    • Palm Island Boardwalk
    • July 4th Americana
    • Vintage Photos
    • Donnelly House
    • Sydonie Mansion
    • The Howey Mansion
  • History
  • Mobile App
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Contact
    • News Desk
    • Advertising Inquiries
    • Writing Services & Content Marketing
    • Design Services
    • Submit Pic of the Day
  • Subscribe