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I had never even heard of biting grasshoppers until I moved to College Station. That's where they keep Texas A&M and do all sorts of experiments with genetic manipulation including gene splicing.

About a year after I moved there, I noticed people being rushed to the hospital after trying to mow the lawn. Some hardly even get started before they receive their injuries.

It seems "someone" found a way to impress fire ant genes onto grasshopper larvae. The group was supposed to be infertile. This was to help control the local population of grasshoppers. When mating the males would kill their mates instead of fulfilling their desired effect. It turns out that some of them were not infertile at all. They also have a burrowing nature that allows them to tolerate very cold climates. They love the taste of back bacon.

They are headig a little further north each year and right about now they are in Montana. I don't understand the route, only they know what they are up to.

Some have gone slightly east in their migration northward. My uncle in Detroit reports seeing the lawn guys dropping like fies in his neighborhood. OS that means that they are in the loewr nuckle right now and have been for days. They can cross over to Ontario pretty easily.

The bubbles tell me that they are doing the same sort of thing with ladybugs here in Ohio...biting lil buggers!!

Oh man I better go to bed before they catch me out of my cell....hehehe

G'night all see you tomorrow

Sinna OUT!

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[glow=violet] **Sing like nobody's listening...live like there's no tomorrow**[/glow]

Another thing about these grasshoppers is that they have a small thin red strip on their underside. It is visible if you can hold one still and not get bitten.


I was just checking MSN news and there are reports of them in Portland Oregon too. Wow those things get around. They will be in Alberta within the week.

I wil keep watching this storie and check back when more info is available.

Oh god those ladybugs are in lots of places... the orange ones. I suppose they can all bite, since they are predators...just the red ones can't be arsed to I think.  :no:

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

I think the red lady bugs are too refined to bite.

I think there is a purpose to all of this. It's just a theory of mine. When the grasshoppers land and use their back legs to make a sound they seem to actually play a song. It sounds like the moelody of Oh Canada.

Actually it sounds more like Yellow Rose of Texas to me  LOL

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We don't have those biting grasshopper things in Wisconsin.  But up north we do have some mosquitos the size of a small cargo plane.  I imagine that's why we don't have those biting grasshopper things in Wisconsin.

Chuck:

If I had a list, theoretically of course, of people that no one would ever miss do you think I could sent it to you and then you could invite those folks down to your neck of the woods for a little while?

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Wow, I grew up catching grasshoppers. (for uhh.... fish bait)  LOL  Bass love them, if you know how to hook them on and keep them alive long enough to catch the interest of a bass. (it's an art..... llll)

But, honestly, we'd get a coffee can as kids, and run through the field catching grasshoppers. I recall them spitting something on your hands that vaguely resembled chewing tobacco spit.... but I've never heard of one biting. Must just be Texas grasshoppers. And when I lived in Texas..... you were smart enogh not to pick up bugs, lest you get stung. (except... fireflies.... I loved fireflies)


.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Sure...

The grasshoppers love humans covered in sweat.

I can't read this thread...... it's making my heart race and my skin crawl

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Chuck,

I'm not entirely certain that all of the people on my theoretical list are actually human.  Most of them made the list by doing things humans shouldn't be doing to other humans.  

Do you think those grasshoppers would still be interested in their sweat?  If not I'd be willing to wipe the sweat of the brow (or any other body part that might need wiping) from most of the ladies on this forum.  If I collected enough it might work for those folks on my list.

Whoa . . . hold the weddin' . . . if any of these ladies was so kind as to let me do that I sure wouldn't be wasting that sweat on the likes of those on my list.  

Sorry ladies.  I had a weak moment.  I had visions of me and Chuck making the world safe for the rest of us.  The prospect was so overwhelming I got carried away.  No disrespect meant.

Please forgive.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

I'm sure it will still work. The grasshoppers aren't very good judges of moral fiber. They'll bite anybody.

Well, anybody but Crystal.

I just found out the biting grasshoppers only attack in the coastal states. Som of the things I mentioned earlier where wrong or misquoted. Sorry for the confusion.

How did I miss this thread.  Or did I ?  

I thought the hype about this was some theory of a vesicular stomatitis virus spread by livestock in norther states eating the carriers... and was along the lines of the West Nile virus, mad cow scare etc... It was a theory, not an actual fact since grasshoppers are vegetarians

(herbivorous species not likely to carry this type virus)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

awwwww!  i thought it was me that did that to you!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

There was also some rumor about the danger's of "Walking Sticks" awhile back.  I don't recall the specific's on that one.


Steve,  just how aggressive and dangerous a problem down in your southern states has the "African killer bee" problem been ?  I thought they contained that years back using hot air balloons, and some phermone type substance of the queen bee, that killed the drones and workers..... That species was a man created honey bee hybred wasn't it ?   South american species, and honey bee... interbred as a lab project, and became highly aggressive spreading up from central america ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

We have the decendents of the killer bees after they have produced offspring with local bees. The term for the "hybrid" is Africanized bees.



They have their own chamber of commerce and only trade with other bees of color.

How do they react to Cayenne pepper ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".