Grasshoppers
Egg -- Egg pods are oval to elongate and usually curved. Often the size of kernels of rice, eggs may be white, yellow-green, tan, or various shades of brown depending on the species.
Nymph -- Nymphs resemble small wingless adults. Newly hatched nymphs are white; however, after exposure to sunlight, they assume the distinctive colors and markings of adults.
Host Plants -- Grasshoppers normally feed on a wide variety of row crops and range grasses, as well as forage legumes and grasses. They do not feed on the grasses of a well kept lawn except when grasshoppers are very numerous and other forage is scarce.
Damage -- During particularly dry weather, grasshoppers may infest turf grasses. As chewing insects, they damage lawns by eating blades of grass. Such injury is rarely economically important.
Life History -- Many grasshoppers overwinter as eggs in the soil. Eggs hatch throughout April, May, and June as soil temperatures rise and spring rains begin. The first nymph to hatch out of the egg pod leaves a tunnel from the pod to the soil surface making emergence easier for the nymphs which follow. Nymphs feed and grow for 35 to 50 days, molting five or six times during this period. Development proceeds most rapidly when the weather is warm and not too wet.
Two weeks after mating, females begin to deposit clusters of eggs in the soil. During the process, a glue-like secretion cements soil particles around the egg mass, forming a protective "pod." Each pod may contain 15 to 150 eggs depending on the species of grasshoppers which laid them. Each female may produce 300 eggs. Swarms of grasshoppers usually adopt a specific area, sometimes as much as a few hectares (or several acres), as their breeding ground and lay all eggs in that vicinity. On a sunny, slightly breezy day when temperatures reach 75° to 80°F (about 22° to 26°C), swarms of grasshoppers may take to the air and move northward in search of new feeding sites. Generally, grasshoppers produce only one or two generations each year.