Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There.

This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your window box and garden to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness.

On the show, we explore our relationship with nature through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction.

We travel around the U.S. and the world with tales of love and heartbreak, passion and adversity, desperation, and triumph.

Music On today's episode, we have a story about grasshoppers.

Our guest is a writer, philosopher, entomologist named Jeff Lockwood.

And yes, you heard that right.

He's a writer and a philosopher and an entomologist, which, if you're rusty on your terminology,

is someone who studies insects.

Today, Jeff shares an essay he wrote called From the Mouths of Babes,

which was inspired by his work as a grasshopper killer.

The story takes us out into the grasslands and questions the morality of killing insects,

even when we think of them as pests. I don't like to think of myself as an executioner.

I prefer to be called an economic entomologist.

My job is to kill insects and other creatures.

Applying pesticides may be the only activity less socially acceptable than chasing ambulances.

So I thought that showing my kids an authentic,

Rangeland grasshopper outbreak would help them make sense of my work.

Ethan struggled his way up into the cracked vinyl seat of the Chevy pickup.

His cheeks flushed and his eyes wide in anticipation.

Kindergarten had been fine, but summer was better.

Some 125 miles and 125 questions later, we arrived in

...