Don't worry your chickens can't get worms from eating grasshoppers with worms. The adult worm does not do the infecting. If they were a type of worm that can infect chickens, the chickens would have to eat the immature larvae that are on the ground.sheeshshe wrote:um, eww. I don't want to deal w/ my chickens getting worms!! I think I'll pass on letting them get the hoppers.... gross!
The large worm that was seen when the grasshopper was dying or put in water was probably a horsehair worm. They are very cool worms actually. When an infected cricket or grasshopper falls in water this huge worm comes out. You often see these worms in puddles of water after a rain.
Here is a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df_iGe_JSzI&feature=related]youtube video[/url] of a cricket that falls in water and the horsehair worm emerges. They don't know the anything else about the lifecycle of this worm such as how does the worm infect the grasshopper.
It was both cool and pretty disturbing. Hard to believe that big 'ol worm was inside that little 'ol cricket.
GROSS!!!! I will NEVER look at a grasshopper the same way again.
A true plague. Wrote a quick article on how we got them under control here:
