The green grasshopper is an insect from the order Orthoptera, familiar to us from childhood. He surprises with his originality. Having in its arsenal of advantages such an amazing adaptation as jumping legs, this little stubborn creature spends hours crawling from blade to blade of grass to overcome 2-3 meters. Or it spreads its wings and flies the distance, saving its unique “jumping ability” for another occasion.
"Headshot"
“New markets and food products are shifting towards small bugs as a healthy, sustainable alternative to animal protein. Bizarre fantasies may dance in your head, but it's not that crazy. Overcoming the 'ick' factor of eating crickets and other insects may seem like a big hurdle, but the benefits you gain in taste, nutrition, and sound arguments about 'saving the world' outweigh any preconceptions you may have." “ick” factor – a feeling of dirt, wrongness, disgust. These are the arguments of Americans who advocate eating grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts (these insects are not much different). In one recent example of the trend, every day, University of Connecticut students buy a fresh batch of whole crickets from a truck, grown and cooked in a carbon dioxide atmosphere by UConn in Storrs.
Locust
It is possible that a locust or grasshopper is giving a concert in your garden. This is the closest relative of grasshoppers, found almost everywhere except in the coldest areas. They feed only on plants.
Locusts have become notorious for their monstrous appetite and ability to gather in swarms of billions. Every day, locusts eat as much plant food as they weigh. It would seem that this is not much, only 2 g, but a flock of a billion insects already absorbs 2000 tons! In Russia, locusts live in the lower reaches of the Volga, Ural, Don, and Terek.
Eating grasshoppers - normalize weight
These insects are a good basis for dietary nutrition. Having almost no fat, they contain chitin and chitosan, which help reduce weight by cleansing the body, in particular of trans fat deposits. I ate mayonnaise, “light butter” (spread), cake, baked goods, chips, and they contained regular or palm oil-based margarine containing trans fats. That is, lipids with a left-handed molecule, which are poorly digested, but are often deposited in cellulite and blood vessels so that the gym has little effect. But the menu with grasshoppers helps.
Insect nutrition
Green grasshoppers are predatory insects. They feed mainly on butterflies,
caterpillars and other small insects, sometimes eating larvae or weaker representatives of their species. Grasshoppers wait for their prey, sitting quietly in the grass, grab it tightly with their 4 front legs and immediately eat it.
If difficulties arise in finding insects, grasshoppers can feed on plant foods: flowers, foliage, tree buds, plant stems, grass and some cereals.
Grasshoppers improve blood flow
They cleanse blood vessels, as well as the intestines and soft tissues with the help of chitin and chitosan. Food can be indigestible, not completely digested, and release toxins. And all sorts of by-products, semi-finished products, fast foods are replete with preservatives, antibiotics, harmful flavoring additives and dyes. Chitins cleanse blood vessels. Easily soluble and absorbable iron contained in bugs helps the reproduction of red blood cells. Grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets contain as much or more iron than beef. Consumption of these insects reduces one of the most common diseases - iron deficiency anemia.
Reproduction
Mating of green grasshoppers occurs within 45 minutes. After mating, the female begins to eat the spermatophore. This process can last up to 15 hours. The male resumes his chirping within 15 minutes after mating.
Egg laying occurs at the end of summer. To do this, the female selects a suitable place in the soil and lays up to 100 eggs in a shallow hole. The eggs are elongated, cylindrical, greenish in color. Egg length up to 6 mm.
Adults die with the onset of cold weather, and the eggs continue to be in the soil at a shallow depth throughout the fall and winter. In the spring, when the surface layer of the earth begins to warm up, larvae hatch from the eggs. During their development, they molt 5 times. Then, bypassing the pupal stage, the larva will turn into a young grasshopper.
¼ of the world's population knows that bugs can be very tasty
Eating insects, entomophagy, is practiced daily by about 2 billion people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Humans have consumed insects for centuries, and they have become a staple animal in many of the planet's conventionally vegetarian diets. They are usually eaten freshly caught, raw, and considered a delicacy. The aversion to food insects is largely due to the barrier of tradition in the Western world. Although morals change. Some terrarium owners, for example those who keep turtles, breed insects for their pets, and sometimes try them themselves, preparing them to their own taste.
Useful tips
Knowing the peculiarities of a cricket’s life, the question of how to get rid of them in a garden or apartment can be easily resolved. It will help to expel the bugs by reducing favorable conditions for their reproduction to zero.
Necessary:
As for the garden area, it should also be kept clean. After harvesting, do not leave unnecessary objects on the ground - building materials, film, fallen leaves and other debris. When digging up your garden, take out all the excess – weeds and plant debris.
Grasshoppers support environmental sustainability
According to Water Foot Print, a cow uses 15,400 liters of water to produce 1 kg of beef. The main part of this water is spent on irrigation for feed crops for the cow. Growing fast-growing and unpretentious grasshoppers and crickets opens up the opportunity to produce commercial food products, saving on water and production space. Insects are an alternative to animal protein and can be a sustainable way to reduce the effects of global warming. They have a tiny ecological footprint. They emit far fewer greenhouse gases, require little water, and consume less food per unit weight than any mammal.
Grasshoppers are culinary versatile
Crickets have a subtle flavor that some describe as nutty or popcorn-like. Dishes made from fresh insects are easy to prepare by first grinding them in a blender. How to eat grasshoppers? The most accessible and popular food product in the United States is “cricket” or “crack” flour – dried ground insects. It is generally accepted that a few tablespoons can provide nutritional benefits to any meal. Crack flour contains twice as much protein as beef; it contains twice as much iron as spinach; more vitamin B12 than salmon. Crack flour can be added to smoothies, baked goods, sauces, and more.
Maliciousness
Very often, the green grasshopper damages vineyards by eating flowers, leaves and buds. The grasshopper often harms tobacco crops, citrus fruits, tea leaves and other plants.
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Results
So, there is a problem: the vast majority of us do not consume an abundance of crayfish, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, Ocean pasta, that is, products containing body-cleansing agents - chitin and chitosan. Also, sports and dietary nutrition are not many “ready” sources. We have to think about including something less traditional on the menu. Insects, like crustaceans, are nutritious and covered in chitin. Suitable for diets and sports, promotes cleansing. The arguments are interesting; they are supported by patented industrial technologies for growing grasshoppers, producing crack flour, and making food products from it. Think for yourself, decide for yourself. If there is no fish, a grasshopper will do instead of a lobster. To someone. Fitness bars made from crack flour look competitive with “crab sticks” - made from ice cream, bleached, colored minced fish. Still, I think that “Ocean” krill paste is healthier than grasshoppers. And, you can successfully breed marine or freshwater shrimp. Be that as it may, from deserts to the tropics, grasshoppers as food are a fashionable trend in an old tradition.
Description and features
The grasshopper is an insect found almost everywhere. It is so hardy and unpretentious to environmental conditions that it can successfully take root in almost any corner of the vast world, with the exception of areas of the planet covered with eternal snow and bound by ice all year round. This insect is found on plains and highlands, hiding in green meadow grass; it is an inhabitant of humid, hot jungles and even arid deserts.
This creature belongs to the order Orthoptera and has many interesting structural features. They allow such representatives of the insect world to successfully survive, spreading across countries and continents.
The grasshopper has three pairs of legs. Moreover, the front four limbs are used for walking, and, not surprisingly, the ears of the insect are placed on them. And the muscular hind legs, capable of pushing off any surface with enormous force, enable such a creature to make impressive jumps.
In this case, the grasshopper rises very high and moves over considerable distances, twenty times greater than its own size. In addition, some varieties of such insects have wings, and two pairs: front and rear. With their help, the grasshopper is also able to mix, although not very far.
The impressive antennae, which are often longer than the body of these small creatures, serve as their organs of touch. The body of these insects itself has three sections. The first of them is a large head, on which large faceted, oval-shaped eyes are clearly visible. The other two parts are the chest and abdomen.
Insects are known for their ability to make interesting noises - chirping. Moreover, the sounds of a grasshopper are rightfully considered unique, differing in volume, timbre and melody depending on the species.
And representatives of each of them can boast of their own unique sound. The role of the “tool” is played by a special membrane located on the left elytra. It has a thick vein with teeth - this is a kind of bow.
And the membrane on the right elytra functions as a resonator. Such natural devices produce unique melodies when vibrating. In most species of such insects, only males are endowed with “musical” abilities. But there are also types of grasshoppers in which the females can also chirp.
As already mentioned, grasshoppers listen with their feet, since their organs designed to capture sound waves are located on the front legs of these creatures. More precisely, the eardrums are located on the shins.
In some varieties they are open, but some species are equipped with special caps that hide them. The hearing aid itself has very sensitive cells and nerve endings.
