Reader: Imagine How Hungry Grasshoppers With the Munchies Are!

Colorado cannabis farmers are losing major battles to grasshoppers this year, with entire crops quickly wiped out after the insects arrive. 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 because of the insect invasion.

“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.

Readers bit into the subject in their comments on the Westword Instagram. Says Adam:

 Can you blame ’em?

Counters Ontoneyo: 

No one wants that outdoor, anyway.

Recalls Arekksu: 

Had one get into my greenhouse and cut a freshly transplanted clone in half.

Asks Crista: 

Should I send my cats?

Notes Shanna:

 My chickens and turkey will eat them happily.

Offers Cally: 

The answer is diversity. Stop monocropping. This is how farming goes.. different crops have good and bad years just like in nature. Plan to have years like this.

Suggests Bovesy: 

Since pesticides and other treatments also can harm consumers, growers should consider that mycology is the new frontier for safer treatments. We have an amazing myco society here that works with the Denver Botanical Gardens.

Concludes Nancy:

Grasshoppers are hungry to start with — what will they be like with the munchies?

Do you grow your own weed? What pests do you deal with? Post a comment or share your thoughts at editorial@westword.com.