What Eats a Grasshopper in a Food Chain?
Grasshoppers are eaten by birds, spiders, snakes, rodents and insects. In Mexico and Africa, grasshoppers are eaten by humans for their high protein content. Grasshoppers eat cereal crops, grass and leaves, but some species of grasshoppers are omnivorous.
Grasshoppers lay multiple eggs to counterbalance the several natural predators they encounter. Swarms of grasshoppers can cause devastation to human fields and are considered pests.
Grasshoppers are prepared in various ways for human consumption. They are boiled, fried, sun-dried, skewered and seasoned with spices. Aesop told a fable based on the grasshopper named “The Ant and the Grasshopper”; in it, the grasshopper is depicted as a lazy and ultimately unprepared creature. Bernard Suits later recreated the fable, changing the grasshopper’s image into one worth aspiring to, for in his story the grasshopper lives the ideal life.
