ATTACK OF THE GIANT GRASSHOPPERS!

Growing up on Noccalula Mountain as a kid, I remember there being HUGE black grasshoppers (also known as Romalea Microptera). Cliff Road was a dirt road that ran behind our house on Scenic Highway.  That's where they most of them seemed to congregate in our neighborhood.  The embankment and ditch of Cliff Road used to be infested with thousands of these black (red and yellow trimmed) creatures.

As a kid I was always amazed at the size of them. Perhaps these grasshoppers were somehow exposed to atomic energy and somehow found their way to our back door!  We watched A LOT of science fiction movies back in those days.  The giant grasshoppers seemed harmless enough, but the kids of the mountain found creative ways to combat the invading horde of giant black grasshoppers.  We used dirt cogs, rocks, b-b guns and firecrackers.  Firecrackers seemed to be the preferred weapon of choice.

By the mid-seventies, I don't remember seeing many of them on the mountain.  I think the kids of the mountain did more than push back the invasion.  Perhaps we went a little too far.  In a way, I kind of missed having them around.  There were after all kind of cool to look at.  Maybe they came in peace.