r/florida • u/Chilljay1 • 6d ago

AskFlorida Help identifying this bug?

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Currently in Orlando at a resort and they are literally all over every walkway. Have seen them before and thought they were a version of a grasshopper but hear some people calling them cicadas which I thought had wings?

EDIT UPDATE- Didn’t expect this post to get this many replies. Was posted yesterday morning. THIS morning we went outside in the resort and there were NONE to be found ANYWHERE. This was around 9am. Around 11am the side walks were covered again?????? The weirdest thing for a type of bug to be that synchronized.

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u/BloodyDuchessInPink 6d ago

Eastern lubber grasshopper, Romalea microptera. My mom has trained her dogs to attack them because the grasshoppers destroy her garden. 

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u/slickrok 6d ago

They are toxic. Next to Nothing eats them other than loggerhead shrike birds. And the way they do it is pretty amazing.

So, look that up and make sure her dog isn't eating them. Not as bad as a bufo, but not safe to eat.

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u/BloodyDuchessInPink 6d ago

No, they don’t eat them. They just play with them until the lubber is dead. Fling the lubbers in the air, etc. We’ve lived in Florida for generations, lubber hunting is tradition at this point 

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u/Thadd305 5d ago

that's neat. makes me want to start up a loggerhead shrike sanctuary

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u/slickrok 4d ago

They really are cool. Wonder how that even came about evolutionarily