[DonDuck]

We had some of the largest hoppers I've ever seen this summer, We didh't have a plague of grasshoppers, but they compensated by growing huge. Grasshoppers don't seem to over winter very well, but I've found a few buried in piles of leaves in mid winter.


On some chilly mornings, I've seen a few sitting on plants like frozen statue's. I use my middle finger as a thumper and send them flying into space like a bottle rocket. My children will attest to the fact that I have a wicked thumper. I never whipped my children, but they always watched for my middle finger when they transgressed. I have no doubt the thumped grasshoppers are expired when they return to earth after a thumpping.


When I see thirty or forty wild turkeys passing through my property a couple of times per day, I don't seen any grasshopper for a week or so.