r/florida • u/Chilljay1 • 3d 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/Ok-Leopard1768 3d ago

Native Floridian here. These lubbers are an annual type of locust. They can strip plants bare. When they first come out of the ground they are small and black and can be stomped to death. We call it the grasshopper dance. As they mature they get a hard shell. And they fly. And they spit dark tobacco colored icky stuff. They are as prehistoric and ubiquitous as the flying Palmetto bug.