Probably a red-legged grasshopper, Melanoplus femurrubrum. Their appearance can vary a lot---some have more red, some have darker red, some have the red only on their legs, others also have some on their bodies, etc. but they're all related and are an important food source for wild birds.

Grasshoppers come in an amazing array of colors. In any given year, I usually see red, green, yellow, brown, orange (the wings) and black ones at the very least.

Check out the variation of color shade and color placement on the red-legged grasshoppers in the linked Google search.

Images of Red-Legged Grasshoppers

Fascinating. As long as there's not more.

*** runs outside to make sure there's no army of hoppers ***

Horror of all horrors, while weeding in the garden today, I found oodles of little grasshoppers that are freshly hatched out----we are talking tiny ones about 1/16 to 1/8" long. I am hoping all the frogs and birds in the garden will take care of them, but I'll be watching very closely to see if that happens. If it doesn't, I'll need to formulate some sort of plan for dealing with them.

I'm so sorry. I hope the critters can reduce their numbers. I hope you don't have the same situation as Jay. Doesn't look like you have very good odds this year.

I have faith the wild critters will get them. Anyhow, what can they do to me? I've already canned enough salsa to keep our family and some of our salsa-addicted friends happy for the next year. If the hoppers want to eat the tomato plants like they did last year, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. We're about burnt out on eating tomatoes, so we'd survive if we lost the plants now. On the other hand, if they go after the peppers or melons, I might not be so happy. I try not to borrow trouble because most of the garden stuff I worry about never happens anyway, so I am going to stay calm and not give it too much thought unless I have to. We'll see how it goes.

Stay calm and watch bugs life. I forgot I had that movie but it was perfect to show littleman why granny hates bad grasshoppers. Just like I explained to him they just want our food! When it was halfway he said I don't like em too.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted quite a few little bitty grasshoppers in our lawn. They haven't seemed to grow into a nuisance and their numbers have decreased. We do have quite a few toads and tree frogs. I'm sure the chickens and ducks have helped some. But I'm convinced that they are not flourishing because the mosquitoes are weakening them due to blood loss.

By the way, I forget which grasshopper it is. But we have one, which if grabbed, will BITE!

Kim, That's hilarious.

George, I've been bitten too, but not often, and I don't think I ever noticed which kind of hopper it was.

Oddly, even though we have been flooded for ages and have had water standing in places since May (long enough to kill the grass), there's not been too much skeeter activity lately. I don't know why, because they were horrible in May and part of June.

Dawn

Mosquitopocalypse!

For while I marveled with all the standing water and so few mosquitoes. But that changed! This week has improved a bit, and I don't know why.