Where there are grasshoppers, even if you can’t see them, you may hear the raspy sound they make. This sound is made by rubbing their wings on ridges inside their upper hind legs, and it is a mating call. Each species of grasshopper has its own rhythm. That way, grasshoppers of the same kind can find a mate.
A grasshopper’s head has two long antennae extending upward. These are its nose. Its head, shoulders and other body parts are protected with tough armor. Its wings fold smoothly along its back and extend between its large hind legs. Its ears are not in its head, but in its abdomen above its second set of legs.
In late summer, a female digs a hole in the ground where she lays up to 120 eggs. She covers the eggs with a frothy substance that keeps them from drying out. She may also cover the egg pod with some soil. The eggs hatch the following spring, and the new grasshoppers (nymphs) look like adults except that they have no wings. They grow so rapidly that they soon shed their armored skins. This is called molting. They molt five or six times before they reach full size, having proper wings.
A grasshopper has six legs. The hinged back legs have strong thigh muscles that power its long leaps. It has a special spring in its knee which, when released, catapults the grasshopper into the air. It leaps about 20 times as far as the length of its own body. Their powerful legs also push it off to fly. Not only can they leap and fly away from enemies, but the Creator has given them excellent camouflage among the green and brown vegetation they eat.
There are more than 12,000 kinds of grasshoppers in the world. Less than 20 of them can turn into pests called locusts. This happens when the conditions are just right for grasshoppers to multiply more than usual and lay eggs close together. When the nymphs hatch, if too many of them are together, bumping into each other physically changes them. They become more social, change their coloring, and develop a gigantic appetite, forming into huge swarms that can completely destroy crops, as they did in our opening verse.
Locusts remind us of a verse in Exodus 23:2 That tells us not to follow a multitude — a big group — to do evil. Just as the grasshoppers develop into destructive pests by being with too many of their own kind, people in a big group will sometimes do bad things they wouldn’t do if they were alone. The Bible gives us this warning not to follow a big group to do wrong things for a good reason!
Did You Know?
A grasshopper can leap about 20 times as far as the length of its own body.
Messages of God’s Love 10/19/2025