Does anyone know of any way to discourage grasshoppers from my roses and herbs that does not involve poison?

I'm no wizard on this myself, MrsS, but thought this site might have helpful suggestions (especially if you raise chickens ).

Well, the pepper based repellant would work on my roses- I'll have to find out if neem can safely be used on my herbs- Thank you!

OK, here I can speak with authority.

Small garden, order just one of these.

Introduce a natural enemy of the grasshopper. The Praying Mantis. They will rid you garden of those little hoppers as well as any other insects they can get the hooks in to.

If you get lucky, they will mate and in the spring hatch out a new brood.

This only works if they are started off in the spring. They are also cannibalistic. They will feed on each other until they get large enough to find food.

In the fall, look for the egg cases and save them in a cold dry place (below 40)and put in the garden in late spring. The new hatchlings are about the size of an ant but grow rapidly.

Order this winter for next spring.

I use to have them as a pets in my youth.

Praying Mantis

About Mantis

Check out other sites.

Will do- had already been considering them just because I find them incredibly cool, but had to have a little chat with my local Ag office to make sure that introducing them here would not create some awful chain that screwed up the local ecosystem- Ag office says it would be fine, but I did not get that sorted until too late for this season.

cut a beer can in half and fill it with water and
a teaspoon of honey, and never tell anybody SeatleRon was in the gardening section...