Grasshoppers are comical-looking bugs with massive jumping legs and wings that help them sail away from you or another danger. How great would it be to simply glide away from people you didn’t want to deal with? Grasshoppers have superpowers that require a certain amount of energy. In order to rein in that energy, they must feed their bodies the necessary super-bug nourishment. So, what do grasshoppers eat? Let’s take a look at the life and diet of the grasshopper and find out where they find food and what happens when they run out.
Grasshoppers Are Not Strictly Herbivores
Grasshoppers are omnivores, like their cousins, the cricket, which may surprise many people. An omnivore is someone who eats both animals and plants. When we picture a grasshopper, we picture them in the tall summer grass of a meadow or jumping on us at BBQs or swim parties. Most people believe that grasshoppers eat grass, and that makes perfect sense. However, some of the tasty items on a grasshopper’s dinner menu might come as a shock.
Some grasshoppers eat meat, and studies have found they also have mammal-like chewing teeth. “Dietary inference from dental topographic analysis of feeding tools in diverse animals” was published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. It explained the differences between their mouths and those of strictly vegetarian grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers eat a wide array of plants. Source: Canva
Grasshoppers live everywhere, almost. They inhabit rainforests, jungles, forests, meadows and fields, crop-growing fields, valleys, cities, deserts, tundra, and mountains, making them easy to find no matter which state you are in. Not all grasshoppers are created equal. Out of over 12,500 species everywhere except for Antarctica, where few living beings exist.
Grasshoppers have flat teeth and mandibles that help them navigate food into their mouths. The grasshoppers who are strictly herbivores (most grasshoppers) have mandibles that are flat like our molar teeth and perfect for grinding away at the grass, plants, or other vegetation. If the grasshopper is an omnivore, which means it sometimes eats meat, the mandibles will have a sharp edge for ripping and tearing.
What Do Grasshoppers Eat in the Wild?
In the wild, grasshoppers are more opportunistic eaters. Most prefer tasty orchard grass stalks or yummy wheat crops, but some will consume meat, such as other insects. Since food can sometimes be challenging to find in the colder months, grasshoppers may eat whatever they can find. They are known to moss, lichen, fungi, bark, aphids, animal feces, rotting carrion, roadkill, and dying and dead insects and spiders.
There isn’t a whole lot these insects won’t eat when they’re in a bind. They have also been known to make a meal out of paint. No, you did not read that wrong. Grasshoppers have been seen eating regular paint you would use to paint your house or fence. Painters from all over the U.S. have stories about seeing a grasshopper eating the paint off someone’s house while they were up there painting.
Grasshoppers have also been known to snack on fiberglass insulation, fiberglass window screens, cloth, cardboard, caulking, wooden fence polls, and other random items. Nobody knows what exactly attracts grasshoppers to taste-test these items, but it definitely happens.
The Methods in Ecology & Evolution article noted that the mandibles of grasshoppers eating meat and those who are strictly vegetarian are differently shaped depending on the food type they were used for. The researchers recreated a vegetarian and omnivore grasshopper so that they could be more closely compared while not physically checking numerous grasshoppers in the field. This approach enabled the scientists to identify more closely the slight or major differences between herbivore versus omnivore mandibles.
What Do Grasshoppers Eat When Kept As Pets?
As the pet industry blooms with new, strange pets, grasshoppers are on the list. Of course, so are jumping spiders, foreign fancy mouse breeds, domestic fancy rat breeds, blue death-feigning beetles, whip spiders, tarantulas, praying mantises, sugar gliders, etc.
Grasshoppers are easy to come by, free, and inexpensive to care for if you don’t buy a fancy terrarium and whatnot. Grasshoppers are professionals at camouflaging themselves in the tall grass, so finding one may be easiest if you just walk slowly through a field. You’re bound to see some hoppy green friends springing out in front of you! Unfortunately, these small bugs expire around one year, so they are not a big commitment. Plus, if the grasshopper is caught locally, it can be returned to the spot where it was caught if you change your mind. If you order a special foreign grasshopper online, it cannot be set free. It could become invasive and cause a great deal of problems.
If you are ready to take on the responsibility of a grasshopper owner, you will need to get a few inexpensive things before you catch a grasshopper:
- 10-gallon or bigger fish tank with a screen top. You can buy these new ones at your local pet store or find a used one online for a few dollars. A great place to look is the Facebook marketplace. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for yard sales. Sometimes, they have fish tanks or terrariums.
- Finding food for your grasshopper is easy and cheap! They enjoy any type of vegetation like leafy green lettuce, kale, mustard greens, grass cut from a lawn not treated with chemicals, leaves from plants outside, bark, moss, lichen, fruit, and veggies of any kind, as long as it is thoroughly washed before.
- Grasshoppers prefer warm and humid conditions, which can be achieved by putting a thermostat-controlled heating pad under half of the tank (always leave an area where the grasshopper can go that is not heated in case it gets too hot) and misting the inside glass every day using a mist sprayer. That will keep the humidity where it needs to be and allow the grasshopper a chance to drink.
- A little coconut substrate just in case you caught a pregnant female grasshopper. She will need somewhere to lay her eggs.
