And though grasshoppers may just be icky green-and-brown insects to some of us, to kids they're cool, with educational potential. Here's what you need to know to turn the summer plague into an entomological experience.

FAST GRASSHOPPER FACTS:

[It takes] two months for a grasshopper to mature.

Grasshoppers breathe through 10 breathing pores on the sides of their bodies.

Grasshoppers have one large compound eye on each side of their head, so they can see in the front, back and sides. They also have three single eyes, but scientists aren't sure about the purpose of these eyes.

Grasshoppers are making a worldwide appearance in pop culture. A first-division Swiss soccer team and an Austrian baseball team are both called the Grasshoppers (does the baseball team have a chance against the Vienna Lawnmowers?). Grasshopper is also the name of a pop music group in Hong Kong and an "acoustadelic groove" band from Seattle, popular in the Northwest and Canada.

HOW THEY GET HERE:

Grasshoppers don't like to hang out in the city. They'd love to be munching on grass in an empty field in the country. But when there's a drought, they can't get enough grass in those country fields and are forced to commute. (That's when the more misguided ones end up in parking lots and city streets.) When they realize they need to find food elsewhere, grasshoppers fly; they hop up into the wind and it carries them along.

"They'll see an area -- say, Fort Worth, Texas -- that is green and luxurious and has lots of food and water," said Tarrant County extension agent Dotty Woodson. "They'll choose to land in that area."

Once they get here, they start laying eggs. Suddenly we have a new generation of city grasshoppers, born and raised in our own back yards.

WHERE THEY LIKE TO BE

Grasshoppers like tall grass; it's their favorite food. They like to lay their eggs in a weedy patch of grass -- this makes it easy for the baby grasshoppers to find food when they hatch.

To distract grasshoppers from the yummy plants and flowers in your garden, try keeping one area of your landscape unmowed and weedy. The grasshoppers will pack in like sardines in that grassy patch.

WHEN THEY'LL GO AWAY:

We're probably stuck with grasshoppers and their damage through August, Woodson says. The natural biological balance gets out of control when the grasshoppers invade, and for a while there aren't enough of the natural predators and parasites that keep grasshoppers in check. But those predators and diseases will build up eventually, and then the grasshoppers will go away . . . for now.

TYPES OF GRASSHOPPERS:

There are 150 species in Texas, but five species are responsible for 90 percent of the damage:

* Differential grasshopper, `Melanoplus differentialis': found mostly in crops, not grassland. 11/8 to 1¾ inches long, with black marks on the hind femur.

* Red-legged grasshopper, `Melanoplus femurrubrum': also usually found in crops. 7/8 to 1¼ inches long; hind tibia are red.

* Migratory grasshopper, `Melanoplus sanguinipes': destructive to grass as well as crops. 7/8 to 11/8 inches long; they are strong fliers and can swim long distances.

* Two-striped grasshopper, `Melanoplus bivitattus': Usually found in weeds. 1 to 2¼ inches long; two light stripes from eyes to wing tips.

* Packard grasshopper, `Melanoplus packardii': Found in grassland -- they prefer sandy soils and light grass cover. 11/8 to 1½ inches long.

FUN THINGS TO DO WITH GRASSHOPPERS:

* Watch them eat. Grasshoppers are chewing insects, so they have very large mandibles, or jaws. If you stand still long enough, you can see the grasshopper chomping on the leaf.

EATING GRASSHOPPERS:

"Early man ate grasshoppers every time he got a chance," says Armin Karbach, aquarium and insectarium curator at the Fort Worth Zoo. Eating bugs is officially called "entomophagy."

According to the `Food Insects Newsletter' July 1996 issue, grasshoppers are high in protein but also in fat -- a large grasshopper can have more than 6 fat grams. Find full insect nutritional information at www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectsasfood.html.

Find a recipe for grasshopper fritters, endorsed by the Audubon Institute, no less, at http://www.auduboninstitute.org/html/grasshopfrit.html. For books of recipes with insects, check out http://www.hollowtop.com/hopsstore_html/insects.htm#ei.

The Food Insects Newsletter, Inc.

Man Eating Bugs by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
Entertaining with Insects by Taylor & Carter
The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook by David George Gordon

eatbug.com -- totally devoted to the raising and eating of bugs

The Audubon Institute's Edible Insect Site.
Includes TOFFEE SURPRISE
CHOCOLATE CHIRPIE CHIP COOKIES
WORM FRITTERS
CHOCOLATE COVERED CRICKETS and,
GRASSHOPPER FRITTERS from 'Ronald Taylor's "Butterflies in My Stomach"

The Sombrero Club: Devoted to the villainous grasshoppers of "A Bug's Life."

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