'HOPPER SPRING; EL NINO BATHS GIVE BUG BROOD BOOST.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

The El Nino deluges might be over, but this winter's Old Testament-style rainy season has visited upon Southern California one last parting plague - grasshoppers.

In the fruitful foliage of spring these winged insects have multiplied, feeding on the lush grasses the heavy rains brought. Although present to some degree every spring, seldom have the ravenous critters had such a perfect growing environment, entomologists say.

This week's sudden taste of summerlike hot weather only makes their bliss complete.

``All the conditions came together at the same time and - bam!'' said Rosser Garrison, entomologist for the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's Office.

And although their numbers will thin as Southern California dries out, the grasshoppers likely will be with us for months to come.

So far, the San Fernando Valley's grasshopper population can't compare with those in Nevada and Arizona, where the bugs have swarmed so thick that trucks on Interstate 40 have been skidding on the carcasses. Nor are conditions as bad here as in California's High Desert, where the voracious pests are devouring this spring's record flower bloom.

But smaller swarms are popping up throughout the area, in Ojai, Ventura, Valencia and the Valley.

``I've seen them hopping on parking lots, so they're desperate for food,'' said Jeff Lieberman, manager of Armstrong Garden Centers in Sherman Oaks.

The bug breed in question is the pallid band wing grasshopper, a grayish insect found from southern Canada all the way to Argentina, Garrison said. They appear in spring or summer, emerging from eggs laid in the ground or in vegetation, and often die with winter's arrival.

They thrive on warmth and green vegetation. In Joshua Tree National Park, they appeared about 10 days ago, taking advantage of unusually abundant desert plants that sprouted after recent rains.

``We've got grasshoppers hopping all over the place,'' said Pat Rimmington, a visitor information specialist at the park. ``They're eating some (plants), but there's plenty for everybody, and they in turn are being eaten by the road runners and the lizards.''

Although their appearance has seemed sudden, the bugs probably have been here for months, said David Buettner, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for Ventura County.

``They're now maturing and gaining their wings, so they're starting to fly around and people notice them more,'' Buettner said. ``They're just starting to come out and prepare for mating.''

Despite grasshoppers' reputation for stripping crops bare, Buettner said he has not heard any complaints, so far, from local farmers. That could be because the pests still have a vast buffet of hillside grasses to eat, he said.

The recent hot weather that is believed to have triggered the bugs' activity eventually will bring them under control. As their food supply dries out in summer, the grasshopper population will decline.

Lieberman said although there are several pest-control products that will combat grasshoppers, gardeners probably shouldn't worry too much about the bugs. Grasshoppers, he said, typically don't stay in the same area for long.

``They're transient, they come and go, so unless they're really bad, there's no need to go nuts and buy a bunch of stuff,'' he said.

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