Kosher Locusts: Identification and Permissibility

Grasshoppers require no slaughter at all, as the Tur (Yoreh De'ah 85) states explicitly: "חגבים אין טעונים שחיטה" — grasshoppers do not require shechitah — which means that, unlike animals or birds, there is no act of killing required before consumption.

Building on a drashah from Chazal, the Arukh HaShulchan (Yoreh De'ah 85:3) rules that even a grasshopper that currently lacks the required signs — such as jumping legs or wings — is permitted so long as it is destined to grow them later, since the Torah's language implies that the potential to develop those features is sufficient for the species to be permitted.

Taken together, the passages indicate that a grasshopper of a permitted species carries no requirement of slaughter and may be permitted even before it reaches full development, leaving no classical textual basis in these sources for prohibiting consumption of a living kosher grasshopper on grounds of requiring prior killing — though the Tur (Yoreh De'ah 85) does add, citing the Rosh, that in practice one may only eat a grasshopper with all the identifying signs if there is an established tradition that its name is "chagav."