The cluster of grasshoppers on my thunbergia erecta didn’t know what hit them. First, they were surveying my plants and wondering what to munch and devour first. Next, I turned the tables on them.
I bagged the lot. There were 83. Imagine how much havoc these little critters would have wrecked in the garden. Imagine leaves and plants munched to the ground …
What can one do with so many grasshoppers? I love fried grasshopper snacks but I didn’t think I’d be allowed to fry these in our kitchen.
But I knew who else would love to have these snacks. My carnivorous plants!
But feeding the venus flytraps live grasshoppers proved to be challenging. I almost let all the grasshoppers escape a couple of times as I tried to hang onto too many things all at once. After struggling with the first 7 live snacks, I was ready to surrender.
Alvin, a forumer friend gave me a great idea. Put the grasshoppers in the fridge for a while, he said. They’ll go off to sleep and won’t jump all over then.
I went one step further and left them in the freezer for a few minutes. I think I sent them to sleep permanently but at least they were a lot easier to handle now.
The venus flytraps closed too quickly on a couple of occasions and I had to prise the traps open to push the grasshoppers in.
(Feeding the pink venus)
(Feeding the shark’s teeth)
Feeding the VFTs was fun, but I knew I had to restrain myself from going overboard.
The sarracenias were a lot easier to feed. Their cavernous mouths were not about to close on the pincers. In fact I could have tipped the whole bag of grasshoppers down their throats and they would have room for more. But 83 grasshoppers don’t go a long way when you have so many traps and pitchers to feed.
As I dropped one last grasshopper down the throat of a Juthatip Soper, I could almost hear it saying, “Thanks for the snack. Now how about a drink to wash it down?”
So cute you!
the grasshoppers were cuter, sky. 😀 😀
Yeah! Poor ‘hoppers, though…they’re so cute. Lol.
83 grasshoppers!!! that is a lots!!!! When I seen 1 or 2, I already scratching my head !!!
heheh, i don’t buy bloodworms for them so at least this is a change from houseflies, kc.
It’s like a once in a blue moon snack. The sarras must be wondering why such good treats are falling down from above all of a sudden 😀
How did you catch those hoppers? I have a regular one (or two) who feasts on my kale.
i normally catch single grasshoppers by sneaking up on them from the back. i had to use a bag to catch this lot. 😀