YMF

I've never been sure if the things we get in the garden are crickets or grasshoppers or something else again but I do know they munch their way through lots of my plants and have a habit of flying straight at me.

bxpuser24710519

UGH thats the nasty wee blighters

rugbymatt

You can ask me TCW, fruit trees are kind of my speciality... well apple trees really because of the joy they give me...

bil

That's the big ones all right. Typical grasshopper body type.

Watch for the same body type, but smaller and green. They do real damage.

Dick Dasterdly

I used to have a peach tree which grew to a hell of a size in absolutely no time at all.
Problem was, it was for ever attracting all manner of evil insects and creepy crawlies.
My Spanish neighbour advised me to get rid, which I did, for the sake of the rest of the garden.

Dick Dasterdly

To me,they look near enough like a locust.
Anyone know the difference ?

HBG

I've lost a peach, apricot and pear tree in the last couple of years, but I don't know why, the rest of the garden is thriving.

Locusts, or whatever they are, I get hundreds of them, but I did notice only in the last few days that I've got a really loud one in an orange tree, three or four times as loud as the usual ones. I haven't seen it, or them, yet.

Dick Dasterdly

I think the sweeter the fruit the more insects it attracts.

I've often gone out on a night to try and spot a particularly noisy one, yet even though I can almost pinpoint where the sound is coming from, it's very rare I can actually spot them, they blend in so well.

bxpuser24710519

Is that not the cicadas that you hear ?

bxpuser24710519

Looking at images on Google they are all looking the same but the names are all the same too

bil

If it's in the trees, probably cicadas, if on the ground, what they call here onion crickets, but I suspect they are mole crickets.

They create tunnels with a shaped opening that acts like a speaking trumpet to amplify the sound.

Dick Dasterdly

I looked on a couple of websites.
It seems cicadas are only active night-time.
Locusts/Grasshoppers which are virtully the same, only active daytime.

They are both capable of a fair bit of damage, though both in different ways.

rugbymatt

Why not turn adversity into opportunity?

Dick Dasterdly

Yes,well they are quite a delicacy in some parts of the World, my dog and previously my cats seenmed to think so to, as they crunched them up before getting them down their necks.

Must confess I've never yet tried them on the barbie.
Something to look forward to perhaps.

bxpuser24710519

I did mean here as in where I live, although the viveros is very good just my spanish is not.

The peach was planted and started to be trained as fan shape on a wall. It is not out of hand but I must do something about pruning it after this years fruit. The fig the same and it is taking off a bit too much, will need work also after the figs are gone.

I know some folks think Spain is not civilised but I am and have no need nor want to eat the little beasties