i dont know how it happened...but there is a mass confusion in america as to what a locust is. i locust is a grasshopper.

thats a locust^
lo·cust n.
Any of numerous grasshoppers of the family Acrididae, often migrating in immense swarms that devour vegetation and crops.

i dunno if my pics are that blurry...but it was deffinatley not a locust. lol. i hope you didnt play with bees as a child. grasshoppers are fun though! oh and the thing you described as the underground thing is a cicada(sp.). i used to be scared of those. those are he things that make all the buzzing in the trees.