My First Pet Grasshopper: A Memoir

The lush & peaceful greenery was suddenly disturbed by a silent intruder. There was a faint buzzing noise. At a close enough distance, one can actually hear the creature hopping from tree to tree, finding a tasty leaf of its preference. A grasshopper (also known as locust) had infiltrated my home backyard.

I took a closer look at the creature. It was about two inches long from head to tail, green in color & had very long hind legs. It was relatively small for a grasshopper. It can be a daunting task to catch a full grown sized grasshopper. Therefore I was keen to apprehend the puny sized intruder. I approached the little grasshopper ever so slowly. It did not seem to realize my actions as I came from directly behind it. A grasshopper's eyes are large & can probably view more than 180 degrees on both its sides. Therefore, I was probably coming from its blind spot.

When I came to about a feet of the grasshopper, I opened the palm of my right hand & carefully closed it unto the grasshopper. I did not put much force into my hold as I did not want to harm it & break any of its flimsy looking legs. Thereafter, I managed to trap the grasshopper between the leaf & the curved palm of my hand. The grasshopper did not even see it coming or else it should have had flown away. I felt good because I was in control of another creature's life. The grasshopper got "owned"! It was no longer free. I was its new Lord! Anyway, it was the first grasshopper catch in my life so I felt that I had actually achieved something special that day.

I asked myself what I was going to do with it. I really wanted to take a closer look at it. I was actually considering making it my pet. In order for it not to die on me, I had to find some important information about grasshoppers. I did not know about what it ate, drank & most importantly how to keep it alive in captivity.

I found out from the internet that grasshoppers ate plants. Also, some information mentioned that grasshoppers do not need to be fed with water. They get most of their water supply from the plants while they are eating. A fresh green leaf is probably as juicy to a grasshopper as a few slices of bread in bowl of chicken soup are to humans.

I took an old clear plastic chocolate box & drilled a couple of small holes on every side of the box for oxygen. Then I took some leaves from the tree where I caught the grasshopper & placed them in the box along with the grasshopper. As a final touch, I took a wooden cap from the depleted oregano shaker & filled it halfway with water. The grasshopper may or may not be drinking from it but anyway, I thought making a private pool for my new pet grasshopper was a good idea. No more problems. No way was the grasshopper going to die under my watch.