Documenting Grasshopper Catching and Cricket Farming in Indonesia

We Animals photojournalist Resha Juhari recently explored and documented the practices of grasshopper catching and cricket farming in Indonesia. Consumption of insects in Indonesia stems from ancient times and is becoming increasingly popular among visiting tourists, despite its threat to the country’s precious biodiversity.

Photographer: Resha Juhari

In the Indonesian district of Wonosari, fried grasshoppers, known as “Walang Goreng,” are a long-standing culinary tradition and are also popular with tourists. Despite being considered pests, grasshoppers play crucial roles in ecosystems, aiding agriculture by consuming unwanted vegetation and decaying plant matter, and enriching the soil with their dung.

Indonesia is the second most biologically diverse country in the world but its ecosystems are degrading at a concerning rate due to land-use change and overexploitation. Excessive human consumption of this insect threatens Indonesia’s already dwindling wildlife population, which relies on grasshoppers as a primary food source. This potentially leads to ecological imbalances and adverse cascading effects on the local environment.

Some Wonosari grasshopper hunters gather the insects from local teak forests, collecting approximately one to two kilograms daily, depending on the season. The hunters use glue-coated wooden sticks to make grasshoppers dwelling in teak trees easier to catch. Local sources say that due to high demand and declining local grasshopper populations, some hunters are sourcing grasshoppers from outside the region, notably the Wood grasshopper (Valanga nigricornis), also known as the Javanese grasshopper, whose local scarcity has increased their market value. One collector states that they sell 20 to 80 kilograms of live grasshoppers daily for USD 9.00 (IDR 140,000) or USD 12.75 (IDR 200,000) per kilogram for the rare Wood grasshopper.

Locals and foreign tourists frequently purchase fried grasshoppers from stalls along the Wonosari Highway, a popular tourist route. One seller, in business for 25 years, attracts customers by preparing the live grasshoppers and frying them on-site.

In Indonesia, the nocturnal chirps of crickets are a familiar sound, and these insects have long been used in Asian regions as ‘fighting” animals or as a food source for farmed animals and humans.

Like many insects, crickets naturally benefit ecosystems by consuming decaying plant and animal matter and enriching the soil with their dung, reducing the need for pesticides. Despite these benefits, the rise in popularity of bird and fish ownership has increased the farming of crickets in Indonesia as a source of pet food.

Cricket farming requires little space and typically occurs at people’s homes. The insects are kept in wooden boxes and fed leaves, such as cassava and papaya, or pelleted chicken feed. One of the cricket farmers our photojournalist spoke with harvests 20 to 30 kilograms of crickets every two days and approximately 300 kilograms per month.

After approximately 30 days, when the crickets have grown to a saleable size, they are sold to Javanese regions as animal feed or fried as snacks, a relatively new trend popular with tourists. These snacks are made with live crickets, who are cleaned, seasoned, and then cooked in hot oil.

With the farming and consumption of insects rising around the globe as pressure amps up to find solutions to feed our growing population, insect cognition and sentience are being researched and discussed more than ever. These visuals offer a glimpse into the experiences of these previously unconsidered animals.

Photographer: Resha Juhari

Data sources: XERCES SOCIETY/ USAID / IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science/ Institut Pertanian Bogor/ Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology / ScienceDirect