Goppers! (and Darla)

We get a lot of grasshoppers around here in the summer and to be honest, though they can't hurt you, I HATE being surprised all the time so they freak me out. 

The girls had no idea there were any other options other than to run around screaming at and about grasshoppers until their little friend, Addy (the other Addy), showed them how to catch them.  I was relieved that we finally figured out how to live with the grasshoppers.

Now, I'm not sure that was the best strategy since Drew has taken it to a new level. 

He started trying to catch "goppers" but he could only get a hold of the dead ones.  Since he always wanted to bring them inside, we compromised and ended up with a line of plastic cups on top of the freezer in the garage with dead grasshoppers. 

After awhile that was creeping me out so I helped him catch a live one one day.  It was the best day ever - for Drew.  I assumed we'd leave it on the freezer like the dead ones, but no, this one HAD to come inside.  Drew took his nap that day with the "gopper" sitting on my dresser taking a "nap" with him and then walked around shaking him, rolling him, hitting him, etc. the rest of the day. 

And that was when we started calling him Darla (Finding Nemo reference).

Ansen let him go that night since we felt bad that he'd almost been shaken to death by our lovely little Darla.

And the next day we started over with a new gopper.  Now the gopper is at the table for meals, in the bathroom for teeth brushing, wrapped in a blanket watching a movie . . .

I'm torn between the taped plastic cups or a glass jar . . . The cups seem like they could easy come apart with the right movement, but the glass jar seems to be so easily broken (we've already lost a few jars to the grasshoppers this summer).  The day one gets out though, will  be the end of the gopper house guests for sure.

I know that I have a grasshopper in my house all the time, but I really LOVE having a little boy!