Topinsect uses locusts. Our farms breed grasshoppers on several kinds of grasses without any added growth promoters or chemicals.

Due to the boiling and shock freezing process on our equipment, the locusts are disposed of all bacteria and become virtually sterile. The remaining fraction of bacteria and fungus is well below the standards which apply to human and animal food. This is frequently verified through analysis. The double process makes the insects also better digestible for animals.

Grasshoppers have a high nutritional value and have furthermore, due to their hard armour, the quality to clean young birds’ intestines by dragging along the surplus of mucus in the intestines during the intestinal transit. This is especially of importance to purely insect-eating birds. It is recommended to cut the grasshoppers in pieces for small birds.

Grasshoppers are herbivores from the order Orthoptera. There are various subfamilies in several families. For instance, bush crickets are more related to crickets than to field grasshoppers.

Grasshoppers have the ability to jump far due to their powerful hind legs. Moreover, most species can even sail short or long distances. Only a few species can really fly; these swarming grasshoppers are also known as Locusta Migratoria. Some of them have short antennas (field grasshoppers), while others have long antennas (bush crickets). Most field grasshoppers lay their eggs in packs in the ground. The females have an egg-laying apparatus which is adapted to dig. The egg packs are known to contain a dozen to more than a hundred eggs. The eggs of many species go through a diapause to survive either winter or dry periods. If the weather conditions are right, the eggs will hatch. The nymphs, as the larvae of hemimetabolic insects are called, go through five to seven sloughing phases during their development. They grow during each sloughing phase. When they go through their last sloughing phase, they are full-grown. The young full-grown insect needs a coupe of days or weeks to be sexually mature. Species which go through a diapause in the last sloughing phase even take a couple of months over it.

Grasshoppers are eaten all over the world due to their high protein percentage. The military advises its soldiers to catch grass-hoppers in order to eat them when they are lost and running out of food.