Canada

Canada
Canada is within:
Region:	Americas
Subregion:	Northern America

The Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus (Walsh, 1866), once swarmed the Great Plains of North America from Canada to Colorado. Before 1900, it held the distinction of being the foremost agricultural pest, boasting the largest recorded swarms among all locust species worldwide. What are believed to be the last known specimens of this species were discovered in Canada in 1902 and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially declared the species extinct in 2014. However, farmers and ranchers in the Prairie Provinces of Canada still face recurrent outbreaks of other pest grasshopper species. Annual surveys have been conducted in these regions since 1920 to monitor and address these cyclical grasshopper infestations.

Out of the 400+ grasshopper species found in the western United States and Canadian prairies, only around two dozen grasshopper species from three acridid subfamilies (Gomphocerinae, Melanoplinae, and Oedipodinae) have the ability to cause economically significant crop damage through population outbreaks.

The major grasshopper pest species in western Canada are the two-striped grasshopper, Melanoplus bivittatus (Say, 1825), the Bruner spurthroated grasshopper, Melanoplus bruneri Scudder, 1897, and the clear-winged grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudder, 1862) (Johnson 2022, unpublished data, based on 12,000 identified survey specimens). While the migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fabricius, 1798) is the most damaging pest species in the USA and in some southern areas of Canadian grassland, in regions north of 53 degrees, it has represented less than 1% of the grasshopper community in recent years.

Species gallery

• Highlighted species for Canada
• 
  Carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina)
• 
  Spurcate grasshopper (Dissosteira spurcata)
• 
  Green fool grasshopper (Acrolophitus hirtipes)
• 
  Slender groundhopper (Tetrix subulata)
• 
  Sulphur-winged grasshopper (Arphia sulphurea)
• 
  Blue-legged grasshopper (Metator pardalinus)
• 
  Green-legged spur-throat grasshopper (Melanoplus viridipes)
• 
  Handsome trig (Phyllopalpus pulchellus)
• 
  Large-headed grasshopper (Phoetaliotes nebrascensis)
• 
  Narrow-winged sand grasshopper (Melanoplus angustipennis)
• 
  Tamarack tree cricket (Oecanthus laricis)
• 
  Pacific camel cricket (Pristoceuthophilus pacificus)
• 
  Crackling forest grasshopper (Trimerotropis verruculata)
• 
  White cross grasshopper (Aulocara femoratum)
• 
  Red-shanked grasshopper (Xanthippus corallipes)
• 
  Snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni)

Organizational relationships

The Prairie Provinces of Canada, namely Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, serve as important hubs for locust and grasshopper research and management organizations. Historically, grasshopper surveys in Canada were conducted by the Department of Agriculture, now known as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in collaboration with counties and municipalities. Federal research stations oversaw these surveys and created maps to depict breeding populations in late summer, providing an approximate forecast of the expected risk for the following year.

Presently, the responsibility for surveys lies with the provincial agriculture departments in coordination with counties and municipalities. These entities employ surveyors to document grasshopper densities and collect specimens for species identification. Manitoba Agriculture, Saskatchewan Agriculture, and Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation make biological data, monitoring information, and forecasting available.

The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, consisting of federal and provincial experts, industry representatives, and university researchers, plays a crucial role. They generate maps and organize meetings to discuss grasshoppers and other agricultural pests. In British Columbia, collaboration between industry and various levels of government occurs when grasshopper issues arise in interior rangeland and crops.

Organizations

Locusts and grasshoppers are typically managed through a national plant protection system led by a country’s plant protection organization, ministry of agriculture, or equivalent biosecurity authority. They are often supported by specialized pest control branches, natural resource agencies, and regional bodies when outbreaks cross borders. These agencies are usually the first point of contact for surveillance, reporting, permits, quarantine decisions, and control operations. If the country belongs to one of the FAO locust commissions, those bodies provide a regional framework for early warning, field surveillance, information sharing, and coordinated response, helping countries align monitoring, contingency planning, and control actions across borders.

Organization name	Acronym	Website	Type	Focus	Geographic purview
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada	AAFC	View	Government	Funding	Canada
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture	IICA	View	Non-governmental Organization	Development	Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela
North American Plant Protection Organization	NAPPO	View	Non-governmental Organization	Governance	Canada, Mexico, United States
Prairie Pest Monitoring Network		View	Non-profit Organization	Management	Canada

Resources

Name	Species purview	Year published	Resource link	Descriptive keyword	Language	Geographic purview	Author
ARS grasshopper species fact sheets		1994		Management, Species identification, Series	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, British Columbia, Manitoba, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, [[New H...	Agricultural Research Services, United States Department of Agriculture
Field crop and forage pests and their natural enemies in Western Canada		2018	View	Agriculturist guide, Education, Infographic, Management, Species identification, Integrated pest management	English	Canada	Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Field Guide to Common Western Grasshoppers		2002		Species identification, Field guide	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, British Columbia, Manitoba, Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, [[New H...	United States Department of Agriculture, Robert E. Pfadt
Grasshopper Identification and Control Methods to Protect Crops and the Environment		2010	View	Management, Species identification, Control, Pesticides	English	Canada	Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Grasshopper Integrated Pest Management User Handbook		2000		Biological control, Chemical control, Monitoring, Modeling, Population dynamics, Rangeland management, Decision making, Bundle, Ecology, Pesticides, Biopesticide, Integrated pest management	English	Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, ...	Agricultural Research Services, United States Department of Agriculture
Grasshoppers of the Western United States			View	Management, Species identification, Key	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, British Columbia, Manitoba, Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, ...	United States Department of Agriculture
Montana.gov Orthoptera Field Guides			View	Species identification, Management, Biology, Distribution, Map, Rangeland management, Information hub, Website	English	Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Manitoba, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Alaska, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), [...
Naturalist's guides for grasshoppers of the Canadian Prairies and Northern Great Plains				Species identification, Agriculture, Behavior, Crop health, Distribution, Ecology, Grasshoppers, Photos, Habitat, General locust education, Overview, Infestations, Set	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba	University of Lethbridge, Dan Johnson
Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN)				Information hub, Biology, Forecasting, Monitoring		Canada
Rangeland Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket suppression program		2019	View	Public health, Governance, Culture, Grasshoppers, Economics, Environmental assessment, Life cycle, Biology	English	Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, ...	United States Department of Agriculture
Rangeland Grasshopper Management		1993		Management, Species identification, Control	English	British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Alaska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Yukon, Northwest Territories, [[...	University of Wyoming, Jeffrey Lockwood, Scott Schell
Singing Insects of North America			View	Species identification, Songs, Singing insects, Information hub	English	United States, Canada
The Grasshoppers of the Western U.S. Lucid mobile app		2016		Management, Species identification	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, British Columbia, Manitoba, Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, ...	APHIS PPQ Science & Technology Insect Management and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory (Phoenix Station), United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Plant Health Science and Technology of the USDA
The insects and arachnids of Canada part 14		1985	View	Biology, Ecology, Taxonomy, Orthoptera, Species identification	English	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba	Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Vernon R. Vickery, Keith McE. Kevan
USDA APHIS-PPQ-Science & Technology Phoenix Lab Rangeland Unit project summary		2021		Summary, Set, Project, Project report	English, Spanish, French	Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, [[T...	APHIS PPQ Science & Technology Insect Management and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory (Phoenix Station), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Highlighted media coverage

Name	Author	Language	Species purview	Substance	Resource link	Year published
Drought puts Alberta farmers at risk of another scourge of grasshoppers		English		News article		2024
Grasshopper watch		English		News article		2022
Grasshoppers Are Descending on the West in Swarms		English		News article		2021
Las Vegas resident shares experience as swarms of grasshoppers return to valley		English		News article		2024
Mormon cricket 'sludge' blankets northern Nevada roads causing crashes		English		News article		2024

Projects

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