Leslie, I think it was some kind of hopper plague we were having. I used sevin dust liberally and often. The hoppers that year did not come in their regular cycles. They came all at once and stayed the duration. I had friends who went to the garden and filled up mason jars in a short walkabout. They use them for fishing. Easy to catch bait when there are three different kinds of hoppers on one iris blade. Our local stores sold out of sevin dust and had to order more. I started using comet hoping it was gritty enough and they would not eat it. They just kept coming and snacking. They are nasty things when you walk on them a bit.
