young grasshopper

Helping himself to a serving of Aeonium ‘Cyclops.’ I admit to being just ever so slightly phobic about grasshoppers. I have no idea why. No other insect rattles me like these. This one’s tawny color and freshly minted exoskeleton drew me in, and for a brief moment I forgot to be repulsed. Shedding one’s skin obviously builds a keen appetite.

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12 Responses to young grasshopper

  1. Max Parker says:

    They are the worst. I can smash snails and slugs, but grasshoppers… they give me the creeps. I think it’s their eyes. They’re the only ones I’ll drench in pesticide. Sometimes I’ll just flick them, and then try not to puke.
    Max P.

  2. Denise says:

    Max, you got a laugh out of me before the first cup of coffee. I can’t smash anything. But if you reach for the ice cube try in our freezer, you might have to move aside the “death” jars. Freeze ’em is what we do! Good use of all those excess p.b. jars too.

  3. Emily says:

    Oh–that is sooo NOT COOL that he is eating an Aeonium. I would really resent that. It’s one thing if they eat plants that regenerate new leaves right away, but this is different.

  4. Denise says:

    Emily, it used to be the snails on the aeonium, now this winter it’s the hoppers. Must be the dry weather. This Cyclops has taken quite the hit.

  5. les says:

    Grasshoppers no problem, roaches don’t bother me, I squish Japanese beetles bare-fingered, but scale, scale makes my skin crawl.

  6. Denise says:

    Les, I hate to feed your nightmares, but do we have scale around here! The ants and the scale are in symbiotic cahoots, so I’m fairly blase about scale now.

  7. ks says:

    Obviously Denise, you are having flashbacks from 1950’s era b-horror flicks..http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050177/

  8. David Feix says:

    If you’re feeling happy, clap your hands. That’s my preferred grasshopper control strategy.

  9. Denise says:

    Kathy, I don’t remember that one! But what about ants going amok in Them!?
    David, you’ve just won the Stuff of Nightmares award to this thread. Congratulations!

  10. Peter/Outlaw says:

    I think grasshoppers are kind of cute but maybe that’s because there are none in my garden. If one were eating my aeonium, he might get a gentle bath in DDT!

  11. David Feix says:

    Best way for me to actually catch and kill them. I suppose a butterfly net would also work, but that requires being prepared. They do so much damage so quickly, it does make me happy to “clap” them. Could never be a true Buddhist…

  12. Denise says:

    Peter, I can’t imagine a garden without grasshoppers. Here they lurk everywhere…
    David, the garden is loaded with ethical dilemmas, isn’t it? Keeps our ethical chops sharpened.

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