Catching grasshoppers has become one of my favorite hobby. It is one of the training activity. Why catching grasshoppers? It is because we rear a lot of birds. The young birds need grasshoppers as food to strengthen them.
I remembered how we caught grasshoppers in the beginning. We went around housing area looking for grasshoppers but there were not many grasshoppers there. I only could catch a few mini size grasshoppers about one cm long.
Then we started to go to other places. We found a lot of grasshoppers near Melawati dam near Wangsa Maju. The flowing stream provided the moisture for both the plants and grasshoppers. Along the stream there were bushes ,shrubs and wild grass growing everywhere. There are many types of grasshoppers and the one found on the lotus plant at the side of stream is the hardest to catch as they are very active and swift.
They are green in colour with a black line on their back.
Among the "lalang" we can get some grasshoppers but our action must be fast. Some grasshoppers are very easy to catch because their bodies are fat and round with spider like legs. Near the dry areas we can find brown grasshoppers and they camouflage among the branches and grass.
There is another type of grasshoppers which is bigger in size. They are about 10 cm long and they can fly. They normally move slowly on ground beneath the grass. We have to kick the grass to make them move out. If you are not fast enough they will fly away. We are most joyful and proud when we can catch this type of grasshopper.
Sometimes we go three times a week to catch the grasshoppers when we have many small baby birds. So we have to find a few places so that the remnant can breed and multiply. I realize that not every place has grasshoppers even though there are bushes, grass and wild plants. Places with fresh streams breed a lot of grasshoppers. They breed well near fresh water. But I also found grasshoppers in an area where there is forest next to it. At the edge of the forest on the slope there are many grasshoppers. Though there is no stream there.
We use our bare hand to catch the grasshoppers. We wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid itchiness on our hands and legs. As we have to move and step on wild grass and plants. At times we were bitten by leeches . I have overcome my fear of leeches. I found the easiest way to stop the bleeding caused by the leeches is to place a small piece of newspaper over the wound and leave it there for some time. Of course you have to wipe away the blood first. Have we met snakes in our catch ? Sometimes we did but they were more afraid of us.
In catching our eyes must be sharp and our hands must be fast before it jumps away. In this way we train ourselves to respond in a quick manner. We put our palm over it and close it with our fingers. Using hand is faster than using net. We have to catch gently without hurting it so that we can keep it alive for a few days.
We put each one into a plastic bottles with holes made all over it to allow ventilation. We normally go in a group of five and we can get hundted over grasshoppers.
After the catch the grasshoppers will be put into a wooden box with netting at side. They are kept alive to feed the baby birds for a few days. A small dish of water with some pieces of wet newspapers in it provides
water and moisture in the box.
It is hard to rear grasshoppers. They do not survive well in man-made habitat. Unlike crickets which can be reared in quantity.
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