# How do grasshoppers spend the winter?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 22, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124 "2003-01-22T02:07:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Badbug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Badbug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badbug)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124/1 "2003-01-22T02:07:14Z")

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A co worker asked me today where grasshoppers spend the winter? She said at a parent teacher meeting one teacher asked another and no one knew the answer.  
Do they hibernate underground or perhaps under tree bark? Or do they die after one season and the eggs they have laid/fertilized hatch in the spring?  
Do tiny grasshoppers come from the egg or is there some sort of larval stage first?

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124/2 "2003-01-22T02:15:44Z")

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My encyclopedia says they do indeed hibernate in the adult stage. Prior to that they remain in the egg stage till spring. Newly hatched larvae are wormlike; they wigglr out of the soil and most into little hoppers fairly quickly. From there they pass through five or six nymph stages until they reach adulthood, distinguishable mostly by fully formed wings and genitalia.

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**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124/3 "2003-01-22T02:17:21Z")

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I always thought that they croaked in winter because they fiddled all summer while the industrious little ants were storing up grain:

“The world owes me a living: tra la la la la la la laaaaa . . . .”

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**Author:** ![j\_kat\_251](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-grasshoppers-spend-the-winter/150124/4 "2003-01-22T03:20:22Z")

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They just die, but the ant doesn’t, as he was industrious and smart.