Farmers in the county of Camrose fear grasshoppers will destroy crops already stunted by continuing dry weather.
They leave virtually nothing by the time they've done their job eating," Terry Banack, a farmer in Camrose, said Wednesday.
A field near Camrose bakes in the sun. (CBC)The county, 105 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, was declared an agricultural disaster by county officials on June 16.
Grasshoppers thrive in hot, dry weather, said Pete Heule, life sciences outreach technician at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.
When crops and plants are doing well, grasshoppers are not a problem, but in dry conditions grasshoppers feed on whatever is available, he said
"It wasn't too many years back where they were saying it was the worst drought in 100 years at least, so it might be that we're going to start seeing grasshoppers like we haven't seen in that many years as well," Heule said.
There are already reports of grasshoppers in the province, said Humphrey Banack, president of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers.
"They're not truly widespread yet … I have heard stories that in some areas they're getting to be a little more of a problem than others," Banack said.
Farmers can deal with the grasshoppers by using costly insecticides, but they can be harmful to the environment, he said.
However, spending that kind of money to save the little crops farmers have left on their fields may not be worthwhile, Banack said.
