I’ve seen more grasshoppers this year than I have in years. Every time I walk through the yard it’s like a covey of quail bursting out under my feet. There are the big brown ones, the teeny tiny green ones and the green ones like in the photo above.
When I was a child we’d play with grasshoppers. I wish I could remember who it was that showed me how to hold them gently and hold a piece of grass up to their face so they could eat it in small nibbles. What us kids loved best was that grasshoppers would spit what looked like baccer juice on you—we thought that was hilarious.
After a short time of playing with a grasshopper we’d turn it lose in the tall grass and run off to start a new game.
My oldest nephew Ben was the first grandchild for Pap and Granny and he made me an aunt for the first time. To say we were crazy about him is an understatement. We all thought he was the best thing ever! Of course we still do and of course we thought latter grandchildren were just as special. But Ben got more attention because he was the one and only.
I showed him how to catch grasshoppers and feed them. After that I was his go to person for hunting grasshoppers in the yard. He called me Auntie Titter and we had big fun chasing grasshoppers through the green grass of summer.
To hear a dandy song about a grasshopper go here.
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
All the insect population seems to be at a low here except the Japanese beetles. I’ve also seen more preying mantises around last year and this. It’s not a lot but noticeably more. Do you have them at your place?
Ed-we have them but I haven’t seen a one this year.
As a kid I always caught grasshoppers & gently held them by the back of their head & watch them chew tobacco. For 2 or 3 years we had those large black & red grasshoppers & I was scared of them. I also liked to catch lightning bugs, lady bugs & frogs. Mom would tell me to stop catching frogs because if they urinated on me, I would get warts-never stopped & never had a wart in my life. Now when I walk out in the evenings to sit on my small low concrete porch, 2 tiny baby frogs will jump on the concrete to greet me. I have named them Freddie & Frances. And, each night there are 2 lizards on my bathroom window catching bugs. The bigger one I named Pete & the smaller one I name Repeat. It doesn’t take much to bring me joy & never did. Love nature & critters.
And THAT is why Ben got into Yale!
This is dance musicians week at the Folk School–a tradition that would never have been without David Kaynor.
Tipper, I hope you don’t have a super abundance of grasshoppers. Every now and then that can happen. I don’t know if it is known how that comes about, just the stars aligning or something. When it happens they can be very damaging.
I seem to recall reading or hearing once about red-legged grasshoppers having an ‘outbreak’ but do not recall particulars. They are a large grasshopper. When sitting they are just gray-brown looking. The red is on the inner side of their legs.
About the bugs killing the Monarch caterpillars – we have so many exotic organisms now (and more all the time) that there is not even a good understanding of just how out of kilter things are. Two years ago the Joro spider showed up about 5 miles from.the house in Don Carter State Park ( which I know you know about). I did a lot of walking in the park then and I saw only two. Last year we were and this year we are covered up. In my little garden spot I’d guess there are 50 or so. I am very concerned they will catch and kill the pollinators. I had enough troubles without them.
Of course you, as a child, did what children do – had fun and didn’t have to.worry about those downsides. My Dad tried to tell me, gently, but I didn’t understand. I guess the way it is must be we adults want kids to thoroughly enjoy being kids but we don’t want them to understand why it matters.
I remember getting baccer juice spit on me, too. I also learned that it will leave a tiny spit-sized stain on clothes. Imagine my dissapointment when in grade school I read an article about grasshoppers that said they were just throwing up to distract preditors. I always thought they’d been in the baccer patch!
We do miss David! I’ve seen more grasshoppers this year than usual and more cardinals also more flowers on the mimosa trees that ever. Do you it is the warmer weather?
Grasshoppers have always been a little strange looking to me with those long legs, but they are friendlier than most of the critters I’ve encountered.
Grasshoppers were an integral part of summer when I was a kid. I used to catch one and look it in the face and wonder what it was thinking. I don’t think a boy can grow up proper without getting grasshopper spit on his hands. Those marvelous hopping and flying creatures were abundant in the pastures and hay fields that surrounded the ponds I loved to fish and swim in. They make great fish bait too.
What a cute story. I used to catch butterflies and ladybugs oh yes and daddy long legs.
When hubby was growing up he used grasshoppers for fish bait; they were really big ones and they would also bite.
Biting grasshoppers was a really sad revelation to me. I wanted my grands to not be afraid of insects and other critters. One of those big grasshoppers was on our back porch and I told my little young granddaughter she could hold it. She put her hand up (trusting me) and under its legs and he bite her little finger so hard it bled. Oh how I wish it had bitten me first so I could have warned her instead of causing her that pain.
I never knew you could hold a grasshopper and feed him niblets of grass! That is a very special talent indeed!!! The ones here are about 3 or 4 inches long and I’m sure they eat a lot of stuff- they probably like gardens the best. Lol!!! I surely did like the grasshopper song and must ask if that’s David your friend who sent instruments to the girls after his passing. Ben the nephew sounds like a real card!!! I bet he was lots of fun and all of you just doted on him!!! The older I get I think children are the BEST gifts God gives! They’re little miracles of life fresh from heaven and precious light to this world!!! Btw I’ve calmed down about my garden. It’s like my girls. I gotta believe the Lord will watch over and take care. Acapulco flooded I think in June or May and I was so worried, but the girls were fine. Maybe my garden will be too. If it’s not, what can I do about it? I feel like John Anderson looking through ROSE COLORED GLASSES… btw he’s a fantastic singer in my opinion.
The Grasshopper music would be dandy to flatfoot and clog too. I think grasshoppers are universal favorites of children. Our cats and dogs certainly like them too.
Cute story on grasshoppers. I think I’ve only caught one in a jar when I was a kid. My mom always said grasshoppers would eat up the garden so she made sure they didn’t come around our yard. Not sure what she used, but I really don’t remember seeing very many. Just remember that one I caught with a jar.
What memories this post brings, my neighbor and I used to catch and release the small green onrs they would sit in our hands and wait for us to tire of looking at them. There was this one huge bush where those giant yellow ones lived, for some reason we were all scared of them so of course they would jump at us when we got close.
We liked catching grasshoppers, too. The thing we really liked doing in the summer was catching Monarch caterpillars. We would find them & put them in a little tank. We would feed them the milkweed leaves and wait for them to go into their chrysalis. Then we would patiently wait for them to emerge as the beautiful butterfly and release them. I did this with my kids, too. It is awe inspiring. I leave a healthy patch of milkweed in my garden for them to lay their eggs on, but now we have this awful bug that kills them when they are still little caterpillars. This bug, that is shaped like a shield, sticks out this long sticker into the baby caterpillar & sucks the life out of it. All it leaves behind is a blackened husk of the caterpillar. I actually cried the first time I witnessed it and last year I would go out & count all the caterpillars and by the afternoon they would be dead. I have found a ton of these bugs already & they apparently are eating my cabbage worms, too. If they’d only eat them…and not the Monarchs. Has anyone else heard of this & know of a way to stop it? I have been going around squishing the ones I find. I think they are some kind of squash bug????
Patty – we have raised monarchs too and like you said it is awe inspiring, I can’t get over how amazing the process is from caterpillar to butterfly. We have a good size patch of milkweed and two years ago we had several chrysalis. Last year, none, and so far this year, none. I will have to check and see if we have those bugs you talked about.
The monarch population is in decline. I had not heard about that predator insect. If you find out what it is, please post. I’ll bet it’s an invasive species. Maybe we could start an eradication program in support of monarchs.
I have a lead on the what the bug might be. Spined Soldier Beetle. It is also eating squash, that is where I find it mating & laying eggs. Eggs are very tiny, in cluster, bronze colored & glossy. I squish everyone i find – bug & egg. don’t know if they are invasive, but never started seeing them until maybe 5-6 yrs ago. Caught one in the act of eating the caterpillar from the inside out. so sad. Also not sure if it is something just being seen in NY state, where I am at.
I don’t have many around my house, but I can tell you how fast they eat the leaves on my Myers Lemmon bush….you can watch those leaves disappear so fast…Have a Blessed day.
Oops! I meant grasshoppers bodies are longer than crickets. I tell you what – I shouldn’t write when I am not feeling good! Who knows what I will mess up saying. I really enjoyed this post, and all your summery posts you have been writing, Tipper. You have been making me very nostalgic for childhood. And wishing even more than I normally do, that I lived in days of long ago when life seemed slower, and the problems of this world were not so in our face day in and day out. I love reading all the comments you get here and on your you tube channel. Thank you again for staying with your dream! You have given all of us a wonderful place in the world to feel nostalgia and peace at!
Donna. : )
I always enjoy hearing the girls when they would make music with David Kaynor. What a huge loss to the world his passing has been. I am so glad that you have the videos of them together to keep sharing with us. Thank you! I have to say – I did a double take when I read that you use to hold grasshoppers! In all my life, that is not something I ever thought about doing! I would be afraid I would break one of their legs if I tried to catch it. How neat that you taught Ben how to hold them gently! I had heard that they spit a brown juice, I remember that probably from a science lesson. As I was typing this, I thought about crickets vs grasshoppers. One of the main differences between them is that crickets have longer antennae and their bodies are longer, and they rub their legs together to make their chorus. I wouldn’t try to pick up a cricket – they remind me too much of cockroaches, – ugh! But grasshoppers are cute. And they do represent summer – laying in the grass and watching them jump when I was a kid. I hope this made sense. I have been awake since 2 a.m., and finally am getting sleepy enough to get a little more zzzzzzz’s now that it is time to get up. I went to bed very early last night because I am not feeling good. I pray everyone else is feeling great! Thank you for stirring up memories of summer from a child’s eyes! That will be a good thing to think about as I lay here debating if I even want to get out of bed today.
Donna. : )
Donna-I sure hope you feel better soon 🙂