If you want to catch them, try early in the morning. Put them in a glass jar or plastic container with a little soil in the bottom and some green plants. Make sure the container has air holes, and keep it someplace that s not too hot. Warm weather increases the number of grasshoppers that reach maturity. When there are so many, they can eat peoples gardens and crops in farmers fields.
Some people call the brown stuff tobacco juice.
At night, they tend to gather in lighted areas, such as parking lots. Many in are chocolate brown. Include green plants and soil. When it is warm, crickets chirp faster. Nymphs, the young stage of the cicada, stay underground for years, though the length of their stay depends on the type of cicada.