Driven by drought, heat-loving grasshoppers are thriving in Alberta, threatening to devour crops in central and southern parts of the province.
Pest species of grasshoppers are taking wing early this year — and swarming in greater numbers.
Robert Badry, who operates his family’s cereal farm near Heisler, 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, said half an acre of his wheat crop was devoured in a matter of days.
“The ground was literally moving with them,” he said. “It was bare, you could see the soil. They just eat it to nothing.”
Grasshoppers have been long been a menace to agricultural producers. Like locusts, the insects
