John L. Capinera

Yes, I actually managed to get over my goose-pimpled, hyperventilating fears enough to hold the book, look at the pictures, learn more than I expected, and finish the book. I never once screamed or dropped or threw the book, so I am proud of that. I think that knowing ahead of time what sorts of photographs one will be facing makes it a little easier to steel one's nerves.
Unfortunately it did not have enough information on the species I am most terrified of and which are super common in my part of Florida (the lubber grasshopper, known here as a Georgia Thumper), and the American Grasshopper which is huge and can fly and land on your head, to be of much use to me, but my nightmares now feature smaller grasshoppers that I can run through instead of gigantic ones that smash cars and eat people, so it must be helping a bit!
And I finally understand why we need the bloody things to begin with, though I question whether they had to look like grasshoppers in order to fertilize the soil and provide food for birds. I'm even thinking that those proponents of grasshoppers as a food source are onto something, so long as they dry and grind up the little devils to the point that they just look like flour. I might be willing to try cooking with that. Maybe. With so many starving people and grasshoppers so full of protein and lipids it does seem like an ideal solution, especially as they do not emit greenhouse gasses like livestock or take up much space. They're just incredibly scary. lol
Definitely the most informative book on the subject I have ever encountered. There were even a few grasshoppers I found (believe it or not) quite pretty. Just don't ever put one of them on me or I might have a heart attack and/or kill you. lol I'm afraid that still hasn't changed. Maybe I need to (gulp) find more books to read.… (mais)