Can anyone here kill the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper?

[Spent Brass]

GIANT MOFO's won't die. Seriously. They drink poison and fart it out. You stomp on them and they throw you around. The girlfriend has been chasing them out of my landscaping with a baseball bat and smashing them in the driveway. There has to be a better way.

For the un-informed the Eastern Lubber is a giant grasshopper that will devour a garden. Its a little over 3 inches long and 1 inch tall full grown jet black with yellow or red stripes. No exaggeration. They have almost no natural predators because of their insanely strong exoskeleton and being poisonous. The only thing that does eat them is a bird not native to Louisiana, and it has to decapitate the bugger, impale it on a stick, and wait for the sun to bake the poison out before eating it.

Here are a few pics to haunt your gardening nightmares.

and apparently some sub varietals are yellow. I've only seen the black ones in my yard

 

[RStewart]

BB gun?

 

[Gator 45/70]

12 Guage work's for most thing's...Maybe not those though....!!!

 

[Yrdawg]

Step on them. I have never found a use...can't even get fish to eat them. Just an unnaturally ugly bug, I think it's the state bug for whever HB is from.

 

[jdessell]

In Lafitte we used to call the Railroad Crickets. To anyone not familiar or who has never seen them before they can really get creeped out by them. Especially women. I remember I snuck up on my GF with one in my hand. She literally screamed bloody freaking murder. They don't sting or bite.

 

[Cat]

Holy crap! I'm not one to jump at a spider or mouse, but... Keeeeeel heeeem!

 

[my-rifle]

I saw those bastards carpeting the roadway one year in Austin. Tire tracks through the swarm were solid black with the carcasses of the little vermin.

 

[Bayoupiper]

The black ones are called Devil Horses and I happen to like them.



















Could be because my wife hates them....


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[JR1572]

Devil Horses are awesome. I try not to hit them on the roadway.

JR1572

 

[LACamper]

I've tried my weed eater before but no luck. Stick to the baseball bat!

 

[Pale Horse]

Red Ryder BB gun?

 

[GunRelated]

I fed one to my tarantula before, he seemed to like it. You could hear a crunching sound when his fangs penetrated it.

 

[Spent Brass]

hmm, 12 gauge sounds appealing. But Im the new neighbor in a very old neighborhood in south BR. Pretty sure my neighbors are politicians, lawyers, professors, and the like. The kinda folk who would run me off if they new I owned even a bb gun lol. I've heard em called Devil Horses as well. I want them all gone (humane/eco-concious or not) before all my flowers and landscaping are! The only solution the google had to offer was wait till spring when the babies hatch and walk around with a bucket of soapy water and just throw em in. In reference to them not biting, I just read that they can excrete a poison foam from the abdomen that is a skin irritant and they can also spit half digested plant matter that will stain anything it touches. Darn bugs got me grumpy. Bout to go on a walk with the bat...

 

[Emperor]

How cool would it be if they were aggressive and they bit the bejesus out of people!

 

[Ritten]

They make great moving targets at 200yds.

 

[Bayoupiper]

hmm, 12 gauge sounds appealing. But Im the new neighbor in a very old neighborhood in south BR. Pretty sure my neighbors are politicians, lawyers, professors, and the like. The kinda folk who would run me off if they new I owned even a bb gun lol. I've heard em called Devil Horses as well. I want them all gone (humane/eco-concious or not) before all my flowers and landscaping are! The only solution the google had to offer was wait till spring when the babies hatch and walk around with a bucket of soapy water and just throw em in. In reference to them not biting, I just read that they can excrete a poison foam from the abdomen that is a skin irritant and they can also spit half digested plant matter that will stain anything it touches. Darn bugs got me grumpy. Bout to go on a walk with the bat...

Maybe we will make them the theme of the next Southdowns parade!





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[Hattrick 22]

Use tape/sticky pads to get em. Tape would work really well around the plants you don't want them to destroy they'll stick to it and then all you have to use is your trusty bat since blunt force trauma seems to be the only thing that can kills these things.

Dawn dish soap works wonders as well. Mix it up so it will foam well and soak your plants in it. It doesn't hurt the plants but the devil horses can't stomach it and die. (found that with some google-fu.

 

[kcinnick]

Suppressed shotgun?

 

[Gator 45/70]

Bingo !!! Super soaker filled with Dawn infused water....

 

[sgt z]

Sounds like a challenge for Billy the exterminator. They are in the family of the short-horned grasshoppers.