They were called locusts in my area as well. Wasn't until college zoology that I learned we were calling them the wrong thing.

Anyways, I had a dog that would watch from the back porch and when he saw one flying low across the back yard would run out and catch it out of mid air. The things would be flapping and croaking about until they were crushed mid-swallow. It was a gross but impressive feat to behold.

My grandmother in N TX called them that too. They're cicadas and they're damn loud. Since 1980, all grasshopper species remaining in N America are too rare now to enter a gregarious phase.