In addition to your hat and some water, take a net, a hand lens, a notebook and a map. Nets can be made by sewing cotton, netting or other rugged material into a cone. You can buy nets at farm supply stores. But one of the best items to take along are Ziploc vegetable bags (the kind with tiny holes). No kidding, Ziploc "breathable" bags for veggies are the greatest recent discovery in field Acridology, in my opinion. (Acridology is the study of grasshoppers, and if you are a budding grasshopper collector, then you are a becoming a "field acridologist".)
These bags are not expensive, and can be reused many times. They breathe so well that you can stack dozens in a small area, as long as you don't pack them down.
You can put between one and about 100 insects in each bag without causing them to suffer and die in transit. If they die, they turn reddish brown (a problem that is accelerated by poor air flow and warm temperatures) before you can identify them or transfer them to a cage.
I have collected grasshoppers and other insects for 40 years, and I have used all sorts of containers for bringing them back from the field, including cages, plastic bags, paper bags, paper cups, tupperware, homemade boxes (glass, plastic, wood, sheet metal), fancy science supply containers, vials, jars, regular ziploc bags, drink bottles, film canisters, etc. They all work but they all have one or more disadvantages: bulkiness, high humidity that causes premature death and discoloring of the specimens, too many escapes of smaller insects, cost, cleaning and other problems. While collecting in the north last year, Julie and I stopped at a small town grocery store, and I tried a package of Ziploc bags with tiny holes. These are perfect! They hold a lot, and the grasshoppers live for days if necessary (although normally you should try to process them the same day - either pin some to save, or let them go; don't release them in another region, though).
The air holes are shown above. During the manufacturing process, the holes are punched into the bag in such a way that the plastic edges are slightly stretched and ragged. This helps to prevent smaller insects from escaping. I suppose that you could make your own from a bread bag, but these are cheap.
The holes look double here because you can see both sides of the bag.
To keep grasshoppers at home and observe them alive, I recommend cages made from clear plastic food containers such as the ones that cover store-bought cakes and pies. Depending on the kind of plastic, you can use a scissors or nail to make small slots or holes for air flow. The holes are partly needed for oxygen, but more importantly to keep the humidity low. Too much plant material (food for the hoppers) or moisture in a plastic cage will kill grasshoppers and other insects.
If you are starting an insect collection, consider collecting only what you need. Don't worry about the ethics of killing a small number. There are many, many insects in the world, in terms of numbers of species and also in terms of abundance. In fact, they are the major group of living things on earth, for which we can identify the species. There are so many, that if you collect some and preserve them, the loss to the insect population is almost nothing. On the other hand, the biodiversity of your area and of the world, including the biodiversity of insects, will benefit from your increased understanding of them. So, killing a moderate number of insects humanely (overnight in a freezer will usually do it) and saving them on pins or in containers is not wrong, especially if you label them and begin to understand their life cycles and movements. What would be wrong would be ignoring nature and missing out on the amazing diversity that you can learn to recognize. So do collect insects, do photograph them and do draw them. These methods work together.
- Dan J
