Woman finds rare pink grasshoppers in garden
A woman said she was very excited to find rare pink grasshopper babies in her garden.
Natasha Welch from Shepton Mallet took photographs of the insects and sent them to the Somerset Wildlife Trust, which explained that the colour is caused by a genetic mutation.
Usually, the bright pink bugs are eaten by birds due to their inability to camouflage, making them a "once-in-a-lifetime find", the trust added.
Welch said: "It is exciting that they're there and chose my garden. If I walk through my grass now, I can see loads of grasshoppers."
Welch added that she first found a pink grasshopper in her garden in 2025, but this year noticed that she had a bunch of baby pink grasshoppers.
"I've got four cats so birds don't get into our garden. I also don't cut my grass very often so that might be it," Welch said.
Anne Halpin, at Somerset Wildlife Trust, said the mutation itself is not that rare but people actually finding a pink grasshopper is unusual.
"Grasshoppers are cryptic species, they hide because they're tasty. When they're quite pink, they can't hide as well," Halpin said.
"It is possible the cats are keeping the birds away. In areas with large amounts of cats, there's fewer songbirds.
"It might also be a favourable habitat for grasshoppers."
Halpin added that people who might want to create a good habitat for grasshoppers should have a mixture of high and short grass.
"There's an old saying, variety is the spice of life. The more variety you have in your grass and garden, the more different types of plants, trees, shrubs, will be most beneficial to most species," Halpin said.
<small>Source: BBC Science</small>
