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How to identify it
- Adults are robust and about 1 3/4 to 2 inches long, with only short, rounded wings, so they cannot fly.[2][1][3]
- The short forewings are pink with conspicuous black dots, and the body is boldly striped and banded in green, brown and pink.[1][3]
- The pronotum, the shield behind the head, is trapezoid-shaped and covered with many small knobs. The hind legs are large and multicolored, and the male's hind thighs are noticeably larger than the female's.[1]
- It is heavy for a grasshopper: an individual may weigh more than 3 to 4 grams, and fresh adults collected in Colorado averaged about 3.9 grams for males and 4.3 grams for females.[3][1]
Look-alikes
| Look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Mormon cricket | Another large insect of western rangeland, but it is a longhorned grasshopper related to katydids, not a true grasshopper.[3] |
Where it lives
It ranges widely on the western plains of the United States and Mexico, in shortgrass, mixedgrass, tallgrass, sand and desert prairies, but its distribution is patchy. Populations live in disturbed sites with forbs, especially common sunflower, which often grows along roadsides and field margins.[1]
Biology and life cycle
It eats many kinds of forbs and some grasses and is drawn to common sunflower. In the gut contents of 68 lubbers from a weedy Nebraska field, common sunflower was the most frequent plant (in 35 percent of them), and 19 percent held insect or other arthropod parts.[1][3]
It also eats animal matter: females studied in Arizona ate disabled insects and even caught smaller grasshoppers, and Texas A&M notes that lubbers sometimes feed on dead insects, even their own kind.[1][2]
The eggs need two years of incubation, with overwintering, before they hatch, and field counts in Montana, Wyoming and Texas run higher in alternate years.[1]
Hatching starts in mid-May in eastern Kansas, the first week of June in northern Colorado and Wyoming, and mid-June in Montana; in southeastern Arizona it waits for the summer monsoon rains. Nymphs pass through five stages in about 45 days.[1]
Adults appear from the last week of June in eastern Kansas to the fourth week of July in Montana. Egg laying begins in August and continues for about 60 days, to the end of September; in milder climates some adults live longer, into early November in northeastern Kansas.[1]
Females appear to choose bare, sandy loam soil for their eggs. The gourd-shaped egg pod is 1 3/4 to 2 inches long and holds 20 to 35 large, dark reddish brown eggs.[1]
It gets around by crawling and hopping and is often seen crossing highways and country roads.[1][3]
Damage and signs
- In its favored sunflower and weed patches it behaves more like a beneficial insect, giving some control of weeds.[1]
- Large populations from roadsides and field margins have invaded gardens in Iowa and cotton fields in western Oklahoma and on the western plains of Texas. It can be extremely damaging to young cotton, eating all the foliage and leaving only stems; outbreak numbers have destroyed whole stands, though damage is more often limited to 40 or 50 rows along the edge.[1]
- About one adult per 3 feet of cotton row, or two per square yard in vegetation bordering the field, can cause economic damage.[1]
- Texas A&M ranks it below the state's five most damaging grasshoppers. It prefers weedy areas and is seldom a problem in grasslands, and its limited mobility makes it less damaging, though it can be a problem in crops, especially cotton.[2]
Health risk
It is a plant-feeding grasshopper; the University of Wyoming, Texas A&M and Colorado State sources mention no risk to people or pets.[1][2][3]
Control
Prevention
Often no control is needed. In sunflower and weed patches the plains lubber mostly eats weeds, and Texas A&M notes that, being flightless, it is less damaging than the state's main pest grasshoppers.[1][2]
Biological control
Baits containing the protozoan Nosema locustae infect many grasshopper species and affect only grasshoppers, but they are perishable and work best as part of a long-term program with other controls. Birds, rodents and other predators also eat plains lubbers.[3][1]
Pesticides
For grasshoppers in gardens and small acreages, Colorado State advises treating the young nymphs at the sites where eggs were laid. Once grasshoppers are adults and on the move, insecticides applied to plants work poorly or not at all, and few can be used directly on garden fruits and vegetables. Baits containing carbaryl are one option.[3]
Common questions
- What is the huge, colorful grasshopper walking across the road?
- On the western plains it is often the plains lubber, one of North America's largest grasshoppers. It can't fly, so it crawls and hops, and it is often seen crossing highways and country roads in summer.[1][3]
- Will plains lubbers eat my garden?
- They can. Large populations from roadsides and field margins have invaded gardens, though in their usual sunflower and weed patches they mostly eat weeds.[1]
- Why are there so many some years and so few the next?
- Their eggs take two years to hatch, and populations tend to run higher in alternate years.[1]
Sources
- University of Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station (PDF hosted by USDA ARS), “Plains Lubber Grasshopper, Brachystola magna (Girard): Species Fact Sheet, Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 912 (R. E. Pfadt).” www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/30320505/grasshopper/Extras/PDFs/Species%20Fact%20Sheets/PlainsLb.pdf (accessed 2026-11-08)
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, “Grasshoppers and Their Control, E-209 (C. D. Patrick and S. G. Davis).” agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Grasshoppers-Their-Control.pdf (accessed 2026-11-08)
- Colorado State University Extension, “Grasshopper Control in Gardens and Small Acreages, Fact Sheet 5.536.” extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/grasshopper-control-in-gardens-small-acreages-5-536/ (accessed 2026-11-08)
- iNaturalist, “Brachystola magna taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/122262 (accessed 2026-11-08)