Front porch monstrocity

I found this monster sitting on our front porch screen. FL is full of oversized... well everything. This is the actual size:



Compare it to a regular grasshopper:

 

I have to ask this question. Is this the norm, do you really have insects that big where you are?

 

For the longest time me and my wife (we are both not native to FL) thought they were locusts. And we have those too, but these are actually grasshoppers. When I got out this AM and saw the fatty, I was like what the!!? The pic doesn't do justice. That thing was huge.

 

Looks big enough for a meal. Catch them and eat them!

 

I have been to Florida many times on business. In fact, a company that I have recently gotten involved with has an office in West Palm Beach, so I expect to be going there in the next few months. Never have vacationed there, however. My impression of Florida is that it is "muggy and buggy." I recall one time I was staying at a Hilton hotel in the Orlando area and it had an open courtyard that your hotel room opened into. Every time I walked out of my room I was stepping on ground-crawling bugs and in danger of swallowing flying bugs.

The giant grasshopper that you show above sure would look good on a fishing hook, though. Do you fish?

 

Used to. My wife got me a fishing license a few months back, I still didn't go. It has now long expired. I wouldn't mind trying saltwater fishing. Here they use sand fleas, instead of grasshoppers. Although I am sure some use both.

You're not the first person who referred to those as food. Not sure how to take this, since just the thought of seeing someone eating one makes me want to puke.