That's an old Bible proverb, but you don't have to travel back to ancient Egypt to be at the mercy of the swarm. Colorado cannabis farmers are losing major battles to grasshoppers this year, with entire crops quickly wiped out after the insects arrive, according to growers and industry representatives.
Although this isn't the first time that outdoor cannabis growers have battled bugs, 2023's above-average rains and increased vegetation have brought "a biblical plague" to cannabis farms this summer and fall, according to Jon McIntosh.
McIntosh and his son, Ben, run Humble Farms, a three-tiered cultivation facility in Ordway, a small town in southern Colorado. There they grow the majority of their plants in a greenhouse and under electronic lighting in a warehouse, but they've kept a section of the property for outdoor plants since launching in 2019. This year, however, Humble Farms won't be offering any outdoor flower.
"They eat at the base of the plant. We put 1,000 plants in the ground, and within a few days there were three left," Ben McIntosh recalls.
Humble Farms has a lot of neighbors growing cannabis in the Crowley County industrial park — almost thirty, as of last month — and many of them report that they've been hurt by grasshoppers, too. According to Crowley County cannabis business liaison Tobe Allubaugh, the county's outdoor cannabis output will be cut in half this year because of grasshoppers. And cannabis growers lucky enough to avoid the infestation still have weather to worry about.
"Grasshoppers are eating full branches. We've lost about fifteen pounds, but there are entire farms being cleaned out," says Nathaniel Eaton, co-owner of Stargazer Farms, an outdoor grow in Ordway. "Still, we've been lucky to avoid hail, although we're not through it yet."
According to Eaton and McIntosh, crop insurance isn't feasible for most cannabis growers. Not only is it hard to find firms willing to insure federally prohibited plants, but policies typically cost upwards of $500,000 for around 1,000 plants, Eaton notes.
The pests arrived at a tough time for growers. Colorado cannabis prices are finally starting to creep up after falling to record-low prices over the past two years, and outdoor cannabis is only harvested once a year, in the fall; indoor cultivations can harvest once every two months.
The growers who somehow survived the grasshoppers could see a benefit during the cannabis harvest season next month, Allubaugh says, but that doesn't make it any easier on those who didn't.
Move over, miller moths. Grasshoppers are here to eat Colorado crops.
Flickr/Matt Lemmon
Southern Colorado isn't alone in battling bugs. The Western Slope has been fighting Mormon crickets (the insects are actually katydids, from a similar insect family), which have spread across Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as Nevada on an even larger scale. Farmers in their path have a few defensive methods, but economic damages are hard to avoid.
To keep an active security force to fend off grasshoppers, some Ordway growers are playing fowl. "We've heard of chickens and turkeys being used," Jon McIntosh says. "We don't want to introduce anything to kill the grasshoppers, but people are fighting for their lives out here."
The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division doesn't explicitly prohibit chickens or other manner of fowl from patrolling pot cultivations, but the agency does require that cannabis facilities be cleaned and maintained to prevent microorganism growth.
"That said, chickens and their fecal matter have been directly linked to things like salmonella in the past," says MED spokesman Daniel Carr, "and the Division would recommend caution in introducing any animals that could potentially contaminate the cultivations."
