How to kill Kosher grasshoppers

Question

In Chulin 65a+b there is a discussion of which grasshoppers are kosher, originating from the Mishnah on 59a. The question arises, what is the kosher way of killing a grasshopper, that there shouldn’t be tzar balei chaim etc. either way what would be the right way to kill them, or just to let them die naturally-?- Also, where would this be brought down?

Answer 1

They don't need any particular sort of killing. (Okay there's also a concept of bal teshaktzu, "don't do gross things", that would include swallowing a live insect, but from a kosher perspective, nothing is required.)

Rambam, Laws of Kosher Slaughter 1:4:

דגים וחגבים--אינן צריכין שחיטה, אלא אסיפתן היא המתרת אותן: הרי הוא אומר "הצאן ובקר יישחט להם, ומצא להם; אם את כל דגי הים ייאסף להם, ומצא להם" (במדבר יא,כב), אסיפת דגים כשחיטת בקר וצאן; ובחגבים נאמר "אוסף החסיל" (ישעיהו לג,ד), באסיפה לבדה.

[Kosher species of] fish and grasshoppers -- do not require shechitah [kosher slaughter], rather, the act of gathering them makes them permissible. As the verse says [Num. 11:22]: "Could sheep or cattle be slaughtered for them and it suffice; or all the fish of the sea be gathered for them, would that suffice?!" [The parallelism implies that] gathering is to fish what slaughtering is to cattle and sheep. As for grasshoppers, it says [Is. 33:4]: "One who gathers the locust." -- I.e. gathering is enough.

See also Gemara Shabbos 90b (very end of the 9th chapter, which also addresses the gross-if-it's-still-alive issue): they would give kids live grasshoppers as toys/pets to play with; but the rabbis said to only use a kosher species of grasshopper let kids play with live grasshoppers, but only the kosher species; "as what if the grasshopper dies and the kid eats it?"

Answer 2

Rambam הלכות שחיטה פרק א

ד: דגים וחגבים--אינן צריכין שחיטה, אלא אסיפתן היא המתרת אותן: הרי הוא אומר "הצאן ובקר יישחט להם, ומצא להם; אם את כל דגי הים ייאסף להם, ומצא להם" (במדבר יא,כב), אסיפת דגים כשחיטת בקר וצאן; ובחגבים נאמר "אוסף החסיל" (ישעיהו לג,ד), באסיפה לבדה. לפיכך אם מתו מאליהן בתוך המים, מותרין; ומותר לאוכלן חיים.‏

Fish and grasshoppers don't need to be slaughtered; if you can catch them you can eat them. If they die you can eat them.

It would seem you can eat them alive. No need to even kill them.

See similar in Rashi in Chullin 66a.

See פורטל דף יומי for more source material (in Hebrew) on this subject.