Although the importance of invertebrates to young galliforms has been demonstrated by numerous researchers, few comparisons of techniques designed to assess invertebrate availability for these species have been published. Our objective was to compare suction sampling and sweep-netting as methods for evaluating invertebrates available for Rio Grande wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) poults on the Edwards Plateau of Texas, USA. We collected invertebrates via sweep-netting (n = 102) and suction sampling (n = 100) during summers 2002 and 2003 at brood locations. Suction sampling collected the same orders of invertebrates as sweep-netting, but invertebrate dry mass and frequency of occurrence were lower for nearly every order compared to sweep-netting. Suction sampling provided no additional information to that obtained by sweep-netting in the broken grasslands where our study was conducted. For this reason, we believe the additional cost and time required to implement this technique was not warranted for our study areas.