Why you shouldn't touch an Eastern lubber grasshopper

The large, brightly colored Eastern lubber grasshopper is hard to miss. Its bright orange, yellow and red colors are a warning to predators that it contains toxins that will make it sick. But the colors are a spectacular sight for people just watching the slow moving, large grasshopper displaying its hues.

It is much better to watch than touch this insect.  If you pick up this grasshopper it will make a loud hissing noise and secrete an irritating, foul-smelling foamy spray.

The four-inch long grasshopper cannot fly. Instead it moves in short clumsy hops. It can also walk or crawl.

The Eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea guttata) eats broadleaf plants and will feast in gardens.

They live throughout Florida and from North Carolina to Tennessee, in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and Arizona. These insects mostly reside in open pinewoods, weedy vegetation and weedy fields.

In the nymph stage they look very different than as adults. At that young age they are mostly black with a narrow median yellow stripe, and red on the head and front legs.

In the adult stage they can look different depending on where they live. In northern Florida, this insect is mostly black with yellow markings. The lubbers in southern Florida are mostly yellow with red and black markings and red on the forewings.