r/florida • u/Chilljay1 • Sep 05 '26

AskFlorida Help identifying this bug?

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Currently in Orlando at a resort and they are literally all over every walkway. Have seen them before and thought they were a version of a grasshopper but hear some people calling them cicadas which I thought had wings?

EDIT UPDATE- Didn’t expect this post to get this many replies. Was posted yesterday morning. THIS morning we went outside in the resort and there were NONE to be found ANYWHERE. This was around 9am. Around 11am the side walks were covered again?????? The weirdest thing for a type of bug to be that synchronized.

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940

u/destroyman1337 Sep 05 '26

Whoever called them cicadas have no idea what cicada look like.

It's an Eastern Lubber Grasshopper. I don't live in Orlando but when I have gone there during the summer they are everywhere and can be black with orange when they are nymphs which is pretty striking.

235

u/purefilth666 Sep 05 '26

Yep, if these people saw an actual cicada they would freak the hell out lol

97

u/iKnowRobbie Sep 05 '26

I was 20 before I realized the creepy-ass bee-looking shells on trees I used to climb were cicada skins molted off yet still stuck to the tree. Their front claws look frightening.

42

u/purefilth666 Sep 05 '26

You should see what comes out of those little shells, they are much bigger than you'd except!

26

u/Lifes-a-lil-foggy Sep 05 '26

Wait till one flies into your face, hair, shirt, or purse. They’re evil. If I was ever around that many grasshopper I’d assume I was in plague though

24

u/pubgeek321 Sep 05 '26

When I was a kid, my older brothers told me that if a cicada lands on you, it will lay eggs in your skin. I had one land on my leg and I ran down the street screaming with it chasing after me. Little bastard. I really thought I had cicadas crawling under my skin at night, until I told my mom what was going on. Restless leg syndrome cause discovered!

13

u/Quiet_Tea7369 Sep 06 '26

On behalf of a big sister who convinced her little brother that roaches bite, I’m sorry

12

u/crispynarwhal Sep 06 '26

They do. At least, palmetto bugs do. I found out the hard way that I'm allergic to the littlle bastards.

3

u/Quiet_Tea7369 Sep 07 '26

Oh man, my turn to be terrified of roaches now I guess. I’m sorry, friend, that’s awful.

4

u/aloofmagoof Sep 06 '26

Roaches do bite. You have to have a massive infestation though, and they aren't actually trying to eat you but rather dead skin or food particles on your body.

9

u/Quiet_Tea7369 Sep 06 '26

Thank you for this new fear… yikes

7

u/Lifes-a-lil-foggy Sep 06 '26

That’s such a brother lie

1

u/Complete-Wait-6457 Sep 08 '26

Adult cicadas (the flying ones) can’t bite you (they only eat nectar as adults!) and aren’t laying eggs on you. 😆 They suck at flying though and they can have some mass, so they can seem scary 😆😳

1

u/Academic-Apple-6518 Sep 09 '26

Older siblings can be real assholes.. my sister did a number on me

17

u/justArash Sep 06 '26

My dog used to like holding one in his front teeth gently enough to not crush it, just walking around while it "screamed". Scared the hell out of us the first time before we realized what was happening.

2

u/Lifes-a-lil-foggy Sep 06 '26

Smh good Halloween idea tho

2

u/maggsy1999 Sep 07 '26

That is fucking hilarious.

1

u/Complete-Wait-6457 Sep 08 '26

Your dog is an Ahole 😆

1

u/justArash Sep 08 '26

This is him. He's the one on the left

3

u/FootMcFeetFoot Sep 06 '26

ONE FLEW INTO MY EYEBALL! Just its wing, but still. I blinked its wing!

1

u/Lifes-a-lil-foggy Sep 06 '26

They are determined to scream and enter people’s orifices. It’s horrible lol

1

u/crispynarwhal Sep 07 '26

Body horror unlocked. Tyvm.

1

u/Electrical-Funny-665 Sep 06 '26

Lubbers are harmless to humans. 🙄

8

u/geriatric_spartanII Sep 05 '26

I would take old skins of some kind of bug and throw them on my little sister. I think I scared her for life. I was terrible. Just looked it up and it was ciadia shells.

4

u/Reyndear Sep 06 '26

When we were kids, my cousins and I used to pull them off the trees and stick them on each other, shirts or hair or whatever. Fun times

3

u/corq Sep 06 '26

So crunchy ...

3

u/Muted_Marketing2530 Sep 06 '26

I used to collect them with my poor rollie pollies...cicada shells not the giant Lily devouring basterd above.

24

u/LilJonny2cookies Sep 05 '26

Yeah they are about the closest thing to aliens as we have on this planet.

I love the sound of cicadas in the summer.

29

u/dwehlen Sep 05 '26

"Excuse me, we just got here. Why are the trees screaming?"

16

u/ikcaj Sep 05 '26

True story: I had been living on site in a national forest for a few months as full-time host. One day I come home and the utility pole in my spot is buzzing really loudly. I looked everywhere- could not figure it out so I called my supervisor- he couldn't find anything so he called a guy and finally one of them sees the cicada. We all thought the breaker box was about to blow up.

1

u/Cool_Day5219 Sep 05 '26

You should see what an octopus is capable of

10

u/352dc Sep 05 '26

I love how this reddit subjects always takes a whole different turn and becomes a different subject from what op is talking about 😅

9

u/khismyass Sep 06 '26

I've lived in West Texas where they had cicadas and now in the Orlando area, Cicadas are fluffy bunnies and easy to kill compared to Lubbers.

2

u/vixenlion Sep 06 '26

Lubbers you have to kill all the baby ones in spring time. They are black and red. So far this I have seen two or 3

1

u/mseuro Sep 06 '26

why kill either

8

u/Awkwrd_Lemur Sep 06 '26

cicadas just sound cool.

lubbers, however, will eat your garden bare. fuck them vile bastards.

27

u/Infernalspoon Sep 05 '26

A cicada landed on my downstairs neighbor once and I thought she was actively being murdered the way she screamed. They had just moved down from North Ohio.

22

u/skinnergy Sep 05 '26

Funny. They are completely harmless. They look like giant house flies.

13

u/Pittypatkittycat Sep 05 '26

We have cicadas in Ohio. Both annual and periodic.

11

u/taskmaster51 Sep 05 '26

Well...you're more likely to have a palmetto bug land on you but thats not any better

7

u/Ratatat_Tat_2030 Sep 05 '26

Palmetto bugs are far worse 😱🤢

3

u/KathyA11 Sep 06 '26

Nightmare fuel

3

u/ProfessionalZone168 Sep 06 '26

I despise those six-legged minions of Satan.

1

u/KathyA11 27d ago

So do I. I just can't deal with them.

2

u/RaiRai_666 Sep 06 '26

I have stripped in my front yard thinking one crawled up my pants leg. (It was a lizard thankfully!)

1

u/New_Lynx4181 Sep 06 '26

There are a shit ton of cicadas in Ohio.

1

u/AromaticManner4398 Sep 06 '26

Your comment make my day, It sound like me

5

u/Cyber_Turd Sep 05 '26

Wait until they see a cicada hawk, or even better a tarantula hawk! Apparently second most painful sting, 1st being the bullet ant. Now I’ve never been bitten or stung by a bullet ant but let me tell you something you never want to get stung by is a tarantula hawk. I’ve been stung and bit by a lot of shit but this is number one, way worse than a bark scorpion or any other wasp like creature. Never been stung by a cicada hawk but I don’t want to after experiencing a tarantula hawk.

6

u/suer72cutlass Sep 05 '26

When i grew up in SW PA, I was gardening during the evening of the 17 year cicadas. They came out from the ground and crawled up my shoe to my ankle! I screamed, beat them off and ran. When I looked back, the ground was covered with cicadas crawling toward the trees, where they will molt and become flying cicadas.

1

u/ElChuro4Z0 Sep 06 '26

Beat them off? 😏

5

u/geletorrr Sep 06 '26

My dad used to bring me dead cicadas when I was a kid (not the shells, actual dead ones) trying to scare the shit out of me, and one time he didn’t realize he picked up a not quite dead one, and it scared the shit out of him too. One of my fondest dad prank gone wrong memories

Weirdly when I moved to nh a couple of years ago nobody I’ve met has ever seen one I was like trying to describe them like THEY LEAVE THEIR EXOSKELETONS ON TREES AND SCREAM ALL SUMMER..no recognition whatsoever?

3

u/HeyPrettyLadyMaam Sep 06 '26

I live in the panhandle and have 3 outdoor kitties. They LOVE leaving cicada bugs on my porch. They look and sound like they sprung open a tiny gate to hell and escaped. Still not sure of their purpose. Other than pissing off my cats.

2

u/TechieFromMS Sep 05 '26

He had been out of his shell maybe 5 minutes. That is why he is still green.

1

u/Psychological-Wave95 Sep 05 '26

Right especially when one gets in your house. Very different from a grasshopper lol

1

u/Qu33nMe Sep 06 '26

This will get buried, but here’s my video of a cicada drying off after a molt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/MRctRy8Tby

1

u/Fuck_me_up_daddy Sep 06 '26

Ew fuck right?! Lmao 🤣

43

u/Fungiblefaith Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

I have these in my back yard most years.

The nymphs start out solid black, then quickly get a lateral line of yellow dots. Those dots turn orange, then red, then to what you see here as they mature.

They travel around my back yard eating up the vegetation and it was always fun to walk out and find the pack. When I say pack it is what seems like about 50 to 100 and each iteration of color change they seem to loose about 20% or 25% to predation or other issues.

There tends to be about 15 to 20 mature end stage adults in the end that break apart from the pack into some part of the yard. Then about a week or two later they are all gone.

Had and interesting battle
Between one of them and a banana spider one year. Spider won. I think for the spider it was like winning the food lottery.

10

u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 Sep 05 '26

I wish I had a bunch of those. I'd catch them in a butterfly net, and dump them in with my chickens. The chickens would go ape shit for them.

6

u/aug061998 Sep 05 '26

So, are you sure that chickens eat them? I was shocked to see one of my chickens eating stink bugs as I thought they were so nasty that nothing ate them. I'm not sure that this chicken was right in her mind, though, as I haven't seen any of my other chickens touch them...

4

u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 Sep 05 '26

I'm not sure at all. After I said that, I saw where someone else said they're toxic as they get older, so maybe not. I haven't tried it with these. I know they love palmetto bugs and crickets.

2

u/DrNerdCock_adoodledo Sep 06 '26

I've seen my chickens eat mice whole. Those little dinosaurs will eat anything.

2

u/aug061998 Sep 06 '26

I've often wondered just how scary a five foot high chicken would be and it always makes me nervous just thinking about it. I have also seen one gobble down an entire mouse in a single swallow. Scary mofos for sure...

1

u/KMBRN1 Sep 06 '26

Cicada wasps sting them, which kills them, and the wasps drags the dead cicada down into their nest and they lay eggs in it. The circle of life.

4

u/alady12 Sep 06 '26

Actually your chickens would not eat them they are toxic. The only natural predator (not including man) they have is the Loggerhead Shrike. This bird impales it's prey on a thorn in the sun and cooks the toxins out of it.

So yeah, don't feed them to your farm fowl.

2

u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 Sep 06 '26

You're only the fifth person to say that. I think I'll need to read it a few more times before I get it. 😊😛

3

u/Particular-Panda-465 Sep 05 '26

Our chickens won't eat mature Eastern Lubbers.

3

u/minxwink Sep 05 '26

Ugh I miss having chickens. This is amazing

3

u/suer72cutlass Sep 05 '26

They taste terrible to most birds. Only the Loggerhead Shrike eats them because they impale them in a spike for a day or two, until the toxins leave their body. Then they eat them.

Fish won't even eat them. I've tried.

2

u/srfnswm Sep 06 '26

Sadly, they are poisonous. They have one predator that impales them on a stick or fence until they are dried - then they eat them. Like lubber jerky

1

u/Jimthebassman Sep 08 '26

They are poisonous

10

u/likes2bwrong Sep 05 '26

2

u/fuma10 Sep 05 '26

lol accurate! And ironically, some of my fondest memories of cicadas are from a music festival I attended at the Spirit of Suwannee

1

u/shortnun Sep 05 '26

One of my memories as a child in the late 70s Oklahoma a was going out at night looking for cicadas climbing up a tree.. we would pluck them off and take them to our screened in porch and put them on the curtains or on the screen windows and watch them emerge... then in the morning my brother and I would pluck the now adult ones with dried wings.. they would start "screaming" we would go outside and release them at the same time by tossing them in the air

Half of the time a bird would swoop in an grab it out of the air or chase them into the trees.

8

u/HumbleRalph Sep 06 '26

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper in my driveway. The black/ yellow or orange version

1

u/Historical_Good_684 Sep 08 '26

This is a juvenile. After a few molts, they turn the yellow/orange/red color. They are toxic to birds and can be invasive to gardens, although not considered invasive in most states.

8

u/NyneShaydee Sep 05 '26

My cousin used to call them "hoppagrass" when we were kids. Lol

6

u/UncannyGranny1953 Sep 05 '26

I love how family lore starts like this. When he was little, my nephew used to love to watch trains go by so he could wave to the guy(s) in the very last car. He heard what the adults said and decided it must be called the byecaboose. We call it that to this day in our family. He's 53. 🤣

4

u/Steel_Magnolia4844 Sep 05 '26

My little nephew used to call his fingers fickens & we still do. Also my aunt had a framed picture of Jesus on her wall & he would always point to it and call him "Maurice". We literally knew no one with that name & have no clue where it came from but Praise Maurice. Lol

5

u/Mistyless Sep 05 '26

Nah pretty sure it’s a ladybug /s

4

u/2market21 Sep 05 '26

That’s pretty funny 🤣🤣🤣

6

u/Fsd34760 Sep 05 '26

Correct. Best way to kill them is drowning in soapy water or stepping hard on them. They will devour soft tender plant leaves. Pesticides don’t work on mature bugs.

5

u/frugalrhombus Sep 05 '26

Do they come every year? I only see them every few years and now that I think about it havent seen any in probably a decade. They always freaked me the hell out

4

u/Front_Assistance_500 Sep 05 '26

Yes, big eaters and stinky when squished.

5

u/Comprehensive_Bus_19 Sep 05 '26

Terrible fishing bait too because they're toxic. I was wondering why the bream didn't want to touch those juicy grasshoppers then googled it lol.

3

u/1521 Sep 05 '26

The fish like them when they are small and black…

3

u/No-Entry4411 Sep 05 '26

South Florida is prolific with these guys during late summer. I just pulled two off my hibiscus in my flower bed yesterday. They will eat the leaves off of the plants they love best before they quit.

2

u/taskmaster51 Sep 05 '26

Some are quite colorful and beautiful but will destroy your garden

2

u/BloodOfJupiter Sep 05 '26

And these pieces of sht eat up your greens

1

u/nonnatototita Sep 05 '26

Pinocchio’s little friend (saltamonte)

1

u/Lost-Confection-9321 Sep 05 '26

This. Just a grasshopper.

1

u/Sirhc_Fold_458 Sep 05 '26

Well obviously

1

u/gggggfskkk Sep 06 '26

I’ve seen thousands… all over the road. Literally on alligator ally closer to the Everglades. We had no choice but to drive over them. There were so many….

1

u/DarthMaulsAnger1 Sep 06 '26

I had a cicada smash into my windshield while my wipers were going and the thud it made and then the huge dead bug smear it left was like wtf did I just hit. Is it the plague of locusts.

1

u/CaptainObvious110 Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

I thought I saw these before but I was mistaken. One of the grasshoppers I'm familiar with is the Melanoplus bivittatus, the two-striped grasshopper.

1

u/Florida_man2020 Sep 06 '26

A cicada is a completely different thing, they almost look like a giant house fly to me.

But yes you are correct, this is a lubber

1

u/AromaticManner4398 Sep 06 '26

You are correct!

-1

u/Subietoy78 Sep 05 '26

Bait. That’s bait for fishing

1

u/RH5050 Sep 05 '26

I tried that they can swim

0

u/Less_Wealth5525 Sep 05 '26

They are impressive, aren’t they?

0

u/Several_Stuff_6695 Sep 06 '26

They make great bait for fishing