The Torch Has Been Passed...

  I have a personal vendetta against the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper.  I come by it naturally.  Granddaddy carried on a feud with these guys for years.  He would try to kill as many as he could each spring and then all summer long.  It did no good.  No matter how many you kill, there are just as many (or more) the next spring.  Like him, I will go out of my way to stomp on one and I am one of those "live and let live" sort of folks...most of the time. With these grasshoppers, it is more of a battle of survival.  If I wish to have any sort of garden, I have to be overzealous in dealing with the lubbers.  If left, the critters can strip a garden of every leaf in a matter of days.  Gardening would be a bleak endeavor. 

  Back on the farm, the grasshoppers were unheard of.  We had no inkling such a critter existed.  While we battled things like tomato worms and aphids, grasshoppers of any kind were just sort of ignored.  Then came Hurricane Camille back in 1969.  It was an intense hurricane like none other before.  The Coast was nigh on decimated.  It took so much away but also brought an everlasting plague.  The Eastern Lubber Grasshopper washed in on the tidal surge and never left.

  This afternoon, I noticed two of the critters in different stages of their morphs.   One was still in its juvenile black stage while one was a full adult.  These, both, would have met their demise had I been able to reach them.  They were smart to stay out in the marsh.  As I came back up the board path to admire the ruby lilies that were gently swaying in the breeze, my heart sank as I spied several other grasshoppers happily munching the lily stalks.  Needless to say, I value my lilies far more than some bug.  Those five are no more.  Granddaddy would be proud to know that I am carrying on his battle! The torch has been passed and the lilies are safe for at least one more day.