Child of the Earth and Me, a Jerusalem Cricket in the Rio Grande Valley on a March morning, photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
The weather is getting warm, which means insects and spiders are coming out.
I almost burned the sausage the other morning on account of running outside to look at an unusual creature in our front yard.
“It’s a CHILD OF THE EARTH!” I screamed.
We used to see them all the time when I was a child of the earth myself. They scared the pee out of me, with their shiny translucent casing and black-dot eyes on either side of their humungous heads.
The Child of the Earth is really a Stenopelmatus Fuscus, or a Jerusalem Cricket. In other, less dramatic parts of the world, it’s commonly known as the Potato Bug, and I guess one could argue that it vaguely looks like a spud. (I, however, think it more closely resembles a crawling fetus.) It’s innocuous (like you’d expect a child to be) and lives mostly burrowed underground, which accounts for its pale complexion.
I’m fascinated by most bugs. The other day we came across a big, thick centipede. I was simultaneously freaked out and hypnotized by its long, plastic-looking body and pincers on the tip of its head (or was that its bottom?). It wasn’t until it started to amble — with its oodles of legs — in my direction that I let out a yelp and high-tailed it out of there.
In short, I’m both attracted to and repulsed by creepy crawly critters.
What about you? How do feel about moths and ants and crickets and beetles?
Do you run the other way when you see them, or are you the one others call to come get the Daddy Long Legs out of the bathtub?
Think about all manner of bug-like creatures. Think about your response when you see them. Which ones creep you out? Which ones do you consider to be magical?
Set your timer for 15 minutes and at the top of your page write the words, Everything I know about bugs….
Get your hand moving (as if you have ants in your pants) and don’t stop until the buzzer rings.
Ants in my Croiss-ants, the first ants of spring having a picnic in our kitchen on a warm March day, photo © 2008 by Jim. All rights reserved.
Wow! Amazing picture!
Nicely captured.
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nice pic .. 🙂
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That is one scary looking bug! I’ve never seen a potato bug. And how did they make the leap to the name Jerusalem Cricket? Man, that thing looks nothing like the crickets I know.
What a great Writing Topic. You know, I live so far North that we don’t see a lot of creepy crawlers here. Except for the -pede bugs. The ones with all those feet. How DO they slow walk? 8)
Will be interesting to see what Practices come from this post. When I had my apartment, I had a spider living in the bathroom with me for a while. I finally slipped her into a jar and let her go outside. I can’t step on ANY kind of bug. It just creeps me out. I try the capture and release method whenever I can!
That top photograph is something. It reminds me of an old Sci-Fi movie where the bugs are scaled like humans. If your finger wasn’t in there, Mr. Potato Bug might be as HUGE as a skyscraper!
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Exactly. Those gravel rocks could be boulders and the Child of the Earth could literally be a child of THE EARTH!
EEEKKKK, the child of THE EARTH is loose! Hey, I want to make the movie 8) .
Hey, Mr. PotatoBug makes noises, too, like other crickets. I guess it does that during mating season. BRRRREE-BRRRRREE…
OK, enough of Mr. Giant PotatoBug.
Yes, this should be a fun topic. I know some people (relatives, even) who have bug phobias. But you know what, QM?, I’m like you…I never smash bugs. Bad karma. Well, actually, I rarely smash bugs. I nailed an ant yesterday; it was on the piece of dried pear I was about to eat.
Thanks for stopping in, Jason and Dotch. (That’s like Starsky and Hutch 8) .)
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Child of the Earth…I remember being fascinated by those critters growing up in Silver City.
Now living in the tropics, I am in insect central. All sorts of creepy crawlys here…mainly ants. Ants are everywhere in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There is a tiny black species that is extremely aggressive and vicious. If you happen to stand near one of their nests, their bite is very painful.
Most other species don’t bother too much.
The most interesting species to me are the big leaf cutters. They are pretty cool to watch. They’ll cut a “highway” through the weeds or deep grass, then carry their leaves back to their nest.
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Are the leaf cutters a type of ant? That would be cool to see, all the leaves marching off into the forest.
I bet you do a get a lot of pretty interesting critters your way. I remember a trip I took to Central America. I was there two weeks and over the weekend we landed in Costa Rica. We stayed on the beach, in a rain forest, and the ants and flying bugs and iguanas — it was intense.
Last night I dreamed of bed bugs. I think I had seen a story about the worst case of bed bugs that some group reported somewhere. That, and the vet found a flea on my dog last week. Plus, the Child of the Earth and the ants. It was a suffocating dream, where the bugs just wouldn’t go away.
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Bugs, eh? This could get interesting . . .
A haiku in honor of the flea:
Creeping crawling thing
On my pug you find a spot
And drive her crazy!
[ducking]
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[…] [This Writing Practice exercise was inspired by the latest prompt posted here.] […]
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Eek! These Child of Earth ‘crickets’, do they jump like other crickets? Their meaty legs make them look like football players with layers of padding. They might be quite beatiful if their heads had a different proportion to their bodies – they look unwieldy. But heck, I’d love to see one up close. Crickets and grasshoppers are really neat! G
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LOL, Ty. Well, the flea was found on Otis, who is a big lab cross or some other sort of Heinz 57. I am armed with bottles of flea shampoo and doses of flea be-gone medicine, so come Saturday, everyone (including the pug) gets baths and doses.
G, I don’t think the Child of the Earth can jump. They just seem too darned big. But, the one we found last Sunday moved pretty fast, especially when in the shade. The only reason it stopped long enough for me to take a few photos was because it suddenly found itself in the sunshine. I think they spend so much time underground that they’re kind of stunned in the sun.
Had it jumped at me, I would have probably screamed for my life and dropped my camera!!
BTW, I love crickets (the regular kind). They’re sweet. Grasshoppers are pretty cool, too.
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Great flea haiku, Brian. It might be a flea first. 8)
mimbresman, all your talk about creepy crawlers in the Tropics – whew. That might take some getting used to. We had quite a few when I lived in the American South. Most didn’t bother me – well, except for the roaches. They will always creep me out.
Ants – we have a family story about fire ants in the South. One of my brothers and his friend placed a younger brother on a pile of fire ants and left him there. I can’t remember what age – pretty young, I think. Those piles were huge and fire ants sting and bite! He ended up being okay, but I bet some fire-filled heck broke loose at home that night. 8)
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Interesting topic. I actually like insects, but not the one in your photos (and not ones with more than 6 legs.) And, the only spider I like are Daddy Long Legs. When I was very small. my father taught me that you can shake hands with them. 😀
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WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY!
When I was 6 my mother remarried and we moved away from the home we knew in the south to a new one in the north. The transition was wrought with changes, culturally, climatically and entomologically. From the south I brought stories of fire ants, black widow spiders, and copperhead snakes.
I still tell my children the time their uncle and our neighbor took me as a pestering 3 or 4 year old to play hide and seek. I had to hide my eyes while they took me to a place where I would count to 10 and then find them. As I slowly made my way through the numbers I felt small legs crawling up my legs. Keeping my eyes shut I brushed them off and kept counting -4 brush, 5 stomp, 6 ouch! I opened my eyes to find that they stood me on top of a red ant hill. These are large ants that build mounds that stand 3 or 4 inches high and who can pinch those who invade their space. I don’t remember what my mother’s reaction was but I clearly remember her reaction another time I brought home a bug. As for ants, a few years ago I unexpectedly introduced my children to fire ants while visiting a plantation in Georgia so I guess in my own way I have passed on a memory of ants they can tell their children.
I was 3 in my mother’s memory when I took an empty baby food jar outside to catch bugs. I must have looked high and low until I found the perfect bug which I took back to mom for her approval. I remember asking her to put holes in the top so the bug could live as my pet but her reaction told me I did something wrong. The bug I found was a nice shiny black bug with 8 legs and a red hourglass on its belly, and along with her was many of her progeny (like Charlottes’ children at the end of her book). Mom took the black widow spiders and that was the last I saw of my “pets”. Later in my life our neighbor’s father was bit by a black widow and spent several months recovering from the bite. Two other times I ran into black widow spiders at my grandfather’s house and in my mind they jumped out at me and chased me away. That may have been where I developed a healthy respect for spiders.
I know that geocaching has changed my reaction to spiders. On several occasions early on I walked through what seemed like a jungle of spider webs. I soon developed a method of swirling a stick in a circle in front of me when walking through the woods after I run into the first web and after several months of caching I find I have developed a spider sense and usually see the webs before I walk into them. On one other occasion my girlfriend and I discovered the largest spider we have ever seen with a four to five inch leg span we took a picture and headed onto the next cache.
Bugs, bugs everywhere wondering why we are invading their world.
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The first thing i thought of was sharing a picture of a spider with a man who has two children and he indicated one loves spiders and one hates them. He said the picture elicited a strong reaction from each. Such is the nature of this topic.
I think early recollections of bugs are probably the most memorable. One Saturday I was watching TV with my oldest sibling and her boyfriend, they are 11 years older than I, so I was trying to be cool with all of my seven years. We were watching one of those old Japanese movies where something ate Tokyo, and this time it was a Praying Mantis. When I was tasked to take out the garbage, I rounded the side of the house and was prepared to drop the bag of trash into the dented metal can when I saw the praying mantis, all eight inches of her, sitting on the handle of the lid. I suppressed a scream, dropped the bag of trash, and ran into the house. Today the memory brings a smile.
When travelling in China two years ago, we were treated to a dumpling dinner. In China, dumplings are a work of art. The dough is fashioned into the shape of the inside contents. So we had pumpkin which resembled the sugar pumpkins in Halloween candy, little white ducks with orange bills that swam in soy sauce dishes, and of course, crickets. Hmmm…Crunchy… dry, swallow quick… find something else…reminds me of eating fish bones….
Predators, Villains, Food, Art.
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Great stories, both reccos and R3. I loved this line, R3: The transition was wrought with changes, culturally, climatically and entomologically.
Wow, it’s amazing you didn’t get bit by the Black Widow. She must have sensed your curious, innocent spirit. And those naughty older boys who set you atop a fire anthill during hide-and-seek! We have big red fire ants here, and two times now my youngest has inadvertently stood atop them only to let out the loudest screech we’ve ever heard from her. Poor baby! She cried and said over and over, Owie, Owie, Owie. Ant bites hurt like mad, especially in multiples.
Hey, if you still have that photo of the giant spider, maybe QM can post it. I’d love to see it.
reccos, so true about the lasting power of bug memories! And also powerful is the imprint of bug reactions that we get as children from adults in our lives. Or, at least that’s my impression on how we learn to behave in the presence of bugs — at a young age from those around us.
The praying mantis is a COOL but. I love the baby ones, and while I can’t stand the feel of the sticky feet of a grown one on my hand, I’ll readily pick up the babies.
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p.s., you’ve eaten crickets?! Would you ever eat a Jerusalem Cricket? Instead of fish bones, might be like … what?
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OMG, I actually shot back in my chair when I saw this potato bug!
The only bug I was ever afraid of….whew, makes me light headed looking at it…
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[…] -related to posts: haiku (one-a-day), WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! […]
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OK, in defense of J (whom I assume is the older brother that sat poor R3 on the hill of fire ants-who else could it be?) he has no recollection of this story. He is such a kind man, so I maintain that if he is guilty, it must have been accidental!(Stand by your man!)
Some bugs I actually enjoy! Lightning bugs, lady bugs, praying mantis, stick bugs (they are the coolest), crickets (but not the kind in the photo-that one freaks me out!), just to name a few. Spiders? Though I admire the intricate webs they spin, I don’t want any to get close to me. Ants? No thanks, provided they remain outside & don’t come inside. And anyone who’s house has been invaded by stink bugs, as our’s has, will know they got the name stink bugs for a reason. Gross! Ticks! Yikes, those little blood sucking bugs, they also freak me out. Anything but “biter” bugs!
Our grandson is intrigued with bugs. I clearly remember the first cricket he ever encountered. He cupped the cricket in the tiny palms of his hands (he was not quite 3 years old) & when the cricket jumped inside his palms, he was delighted & the expression on his face when he let it go was priceless! J got it all on film!
reccos62, I remember you telling me about your cricket eating experience! Ugh! I’ll have to remember to tell Brant!
But then he might want me to fry some up! D
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I can’t believe J. doesn’t remember the fire ants and R3, diddy! After all, it’s a family legend. I think even Daddy remembered it when we were down there last year. I know he remembered the black widow that R3 brought home in a jar. That’s a no-forgetter.
I love lightning bugs – fireflys. I wrote a story about them once upon a time. Magical creatures.
reccos64, great story about China. I had forgotten you had travelled there. I didn’t realize that about the dough being shaped like the contents – a cricket shaped dumpling. hmmmm.
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ybonesy, the thought of a Jerusalem Cricket dumpling – whoa. I don’t know. Reminds me of those reality shows that were on a few years ago – people doing and eating crazy things to win money. Hey, I wonder what happened to those shows? You don’t see them anymore.
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QM, as true as I sit here J doesn’t remeber the incident! Perhaps he has a bad boy side that I haven’t seen? I do recall Mom telling a story about bees or wasps & a younger sister had them all through her hair. Who was guilty of this prank? I suspect both R3 & J, but can’t remember. Do you?
D
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diddy, boy, I don’t remember who is guilty of the bees and wasps through younger sister’s hair! I’ll have to check with Mom or GritsinPA on that one. I plan to call this weekend and catch up. I suspect different versions of these stories depending on which family member you ask. 8)
BTW, in the little outtake section on the Fried Green Tomatoes DVD last night, they interviewed the actual beekeeper who helped them film the bee scenes with Idgey. He said if you just stand still and don’t swat them, honey bees will rarely sting you.
UNLESS you are near their hive. In that case, he suggested running as fast as you can. If you swat them near their hive, they will sting!
Mary Stuart Masterson (Idgie Threadgoode) shot her own scenes with the bees. She said she just meditated and got quiet and still inside before she shot them. When they interviewed her, she said, to this day, she has a very special and unique relationship to bees as a result of that movie.
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QM, J admits to the bee story. R3 was also involved. They were yellow jackets that had made their home in a mound of dirt. J & R3, stuck a jar over the hole to collect them & then the two young cowards had GritsinPA hold the jar as they were being collected. His claim is that she would have been ok had she not released the jar from her hands. Well, I wonder what the master plan to this prank was? I know they were certainly in trouble & guilty of this one! I also know that she was stung by them, but not sure how many. D
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I have to confess that the yellow jackets incident was set into motion by j and me. We were at Grandma’s house and there was a yellow jacket’s nest in a mound behind the house. We wanted to catch some and had a jar in which to do that. We talked GritsinPA into placing the jar over the hole, she was able to get it over the hole but got scared because they were filling the jar and she thought they could get her through the jar.
Suddenly she dropped the jar we all ran. I remember that she got the worst part because the yellow jackets got tangled in her long hair. J and I hid under the table watching Mom and Grandma pull yellow jackets out of her hair, killing them and moving onto the next one. We shook in our hiding place because the unexpected outcome from the bee wrangling and the eventual punishment that was coming. To this day that time is seared into my memory event though we were all under 7 or 8 years old.
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AYEEEE…Where’s a good bee charmer when you need one? 8)
You know, now that I get more details of the yellow jackets and the fact that it was after we moved to Pennsylvania, it’s all starting to come back to me. I don’t think I was home at the time. But I remember the fallout.
I guess it goes back to that memory thing – the things we remember as kids. Insect Events is sure one of them. And food, food is another. Last night, everyone on the Fried Green Tomatoes interview was talking about the food Down South. It’s an intimate part of the culture and hospitality there. And since I was a kid there, it’s etched into my foodbank memories.
Now I want to hear from GritsinPA to see what she remembers. And Mom. You know, it’s weird, but I don’t remember R3 and J. being that crazy when we were kids. But I see – they pulled the bee wool over my eyes. 8)
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Hey, QM, did I tell you that another thing (besides a bullsnake) we inherited with the house is a set of three bee hives? They’re actually owned and maintained by a local homeopath — probably in his 60s, early 70s — whose parents were homeopaths. They own one of Albuquerque’s oldest natural food stores.
We treat the bees with the utmost respect. The dogs had to learn that the hard way.
Oh, we also got a beekeeper’s suit. I’ve not tried it on. It’s cool looking, though.
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ybonesy,
yes, one. and swallowed hard to get it down. its hard to eat something you are cultually disposed to not eat. i dont’ think i could do the jerusalem cricket. and Fear Factor (tv show) would not be my choice to watch much less participate in. the JC would be squishy i think…. ick.
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I always disliked the show Fear Factor, and I especially could never watch the part where they eat the worms or cockroaches or what have you. There was always a puke bucket, and, well, I hate puke, so, there you go.
QM, I don’t know what happened to that show, but I do know that reality shows are thriving. The latest one that gets my goat is My Father Is Better Than Your Father, or something like that. Give me a break. It plays to all the macho, competitive hang-ups in our society. I hope it gets cancelled.
reccos, I think you’re right that the Child of the Earth would be squishy. Sure, if it’s deep-fried, it could get crunchy, but it would retain its scary appearance. But, once when I went to Cheng Du, China, my local hosts took me to the basement of the restaurant where you can pick from any of the fish or exotic creatures for your meal. The scorpions seemed particularly popular, and in the short time that I stood watching, I saw the prep cook guy come and scoop out three servings. The stingers were incredibly close to the guy’s thumb, which was latched on to the edge of the bowl, but the guy appeared to have no worries whatsoever. I’ve eaten some very exotic things in China, and I’ve also passed on a lot of things, much as I wanted to show that I was up for anything. Truth is, I just wasn’t.
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ybonesy, I can’t remember the last time I watched a reality show. It seems like they are a strange voyeuristic part of our culture that I’m not too into. I saw one advertised on telling the truth while hooked up to a lie detector for tons of money. Even at the risk of hurting those close to you on National TV. Can that be for real?
I think I do remember you mentioning those bee hives you inherited but I forgot about them. Hey, take a photo of the beekeeper’s gear sometime. That would be cool to see. It would be cool to see photos of the hives, too. Maybe you are destined to become a New Mexico bee charmer.
8)
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It’s so interesting reading the tales of my youngster’s . Yes I remember all of them. You haven’t told of the garden snake you got from the neighbors steps to the wash room or when a snake chased the neighbor up the yard . The garden snake was an experience for me since I didn’t know what kind it was at the moment. The neighbor got too close to a nest of snakes(turned out to be black snakes usually not dangerous) They were nesting under the ramp to where they kept their boat and had a nest of young ones.
There was also the time I walked out onto the breeze way and J had a big black snake curled up in his lap. It was ok until the neighbor girl walked up and screamed then it took off. J was just sitting there petting it and it seemed content.
Another time I think it was J, he had a pet turtle and carved his initials in the shell . Later it went away. Years later a turtle came into the yard and lo and behold it was J’s long missing turtle.
Then there was the time all the boys were climbing the huge (at least 30ft.)Oak tree in the field behind us. They went almost to the top, I’ve been told. I’m thankful I learned of this adventure after it was long past, and everyone had survived. I have learned so many things at family gatherings. Many I suspected at the time but found out for sure later on.
Being a MOM of 6 can be quiet an experience , adventure, and a very rewarding experience of which I am very proud and glad I had the pleasure of . LOVE you all , I think all of you have turned out to be very responsible and great adults that I am very proud of.
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QM, sounds like you & J were both fascinated with snakes! I had never heard any of the stories that Mom wrote about in her comments.
J does recall the black snake & pet turtle stories. I can now retain several in my memory box mind. Thank you Mom!
And although, the red ant hill story I had heard some time ago, I’m still interested in knowing if it was purely an accident or a planned event? D
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MOM, I forgot to ask – do you remember the yellow jackets in sister’s hair, too? Did the boys get in trouble for that one!
diddy, I don’t remember the garden snake and the wash room. I wonder if that was R3 or J. The snake chasing the neighbor up the road sounds familiar to me. Next time we get together, we’re going to have to all tell our critter stories. Oh, I think the red ants were planned. 8)
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yb,
I love the words you use to describe insects – plastic, spud, crawling fetus….
The scene where you run outside shouting “Child of God” was so funny, I had to tell my 15-year old about it. I’ve been stopping to look at insects whenever they appear since I read this post. I’ve never seen anything like this Jerusalem cricket. As my son would say, it’s epic!
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QM
Yes ,I remember well the yellow jackets. It was quite a happening!! We brought Gritspa in and set her in Hilda’s kitchen sink and as said ,began to pull the jackets out of her hair and kill them. Her long blond hair probably saved her life. We then took her to the doctors for a shot. I think she is still allergic to them. It was really scary.
I don’t remember what we did to the boys besides scold them, maybe they remember.
The garden snake was the boys and at the Scruggs. Their laundry room was outside and down a few steps. Most of us in the south didn’t have basements. Ours was in the room at the end of the carport and accessible from our kitchen.
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Mom, oh, goodness. Glad we didn’t make that one up about the yellow jackets. They can be fierce. YES, I remember their laundry room outside. And ours, too, right at the end of the carport. Didn’t we have a piano in their for a while, too. Things always seem much smaller than memories when you go back and see them.
I do remember once at Clarks Hill, encountering a water moccasin in the lake. I was a kid. We were taught to watch out for them. They swim with their little heads up out of the water. Then when I listened to the actors talk in Fried Green Tomatoes, they were talking about how a water moccasin came right up to one of the actresses in the river scene. Brrrr. Those things scared me!
Christine, I’d be curious to know what kind of bugs you’ve seen in the South since reading this post. I wonder if they show themselves, appear to us as soon as we start thinking about them. 8)
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[…] -related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! […]
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[…] -related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! […]
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ybonesy, I drew the INSECT card today in Susan Seddon Boulet’s Animal Spirits cards. Specifically, the illustration is of a Praying Mantis. (I think I drew the Ant one day last week as a totem in the Medicine cards, too.)
Insects can be very industrious energy. You can’t see the illustration from here 8) but I’ll tell you what it says on the Boulet cards:
For an idea of what Boulet’s illustrations are like see the Panther and the Alligator photo in the 10 Things I Learned Last Weekend (Solstice x Number) post (LINK).
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I was at camp, walking to the chuckwagon with another group walking behind me, all of a sudden I hear this sreeching sound so loud I had to cover my ears. It was some sort of bug that was silver in color and had feet on its head. At first I thought it was a rock, then it put its rear end in the air and started screeching, because some one scared it. If anyone knows what kind of bug it was, I would like to know.
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Hey, some wierd thing…I don’t know what part of the country or world you are in, but I’d type a description into Google Images and see what comes up. One thing about bugs, they vary from place to place. New Mexico and the Southern part of the US where I grew up have some amazing bugs you’d never see in Minnesota where I live now. Winter keeps the stranger-than-strange bug population down here a bit. But I’ve seen some HUGE bugs in the South. Poisonous snakes, too.
Lately, we’ve been keeping an eye on the Emerald Ash Borer here in MN. We’ve got an ash tree right out in front of our deck and we are watching it carefully. More on that later!
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Have anyone of you killed a child of the earth, well I have and it cries just like a baby when it is killed. It makes my skin crawl when I hear it. My co-worker just found one in the warehouse we work in and I took it home over the weekend to show my son and he loved messing around with it and we put a black bug in the jar with it and it bit off it’s head, well I brought it back to work today and showed it to my boss and he didn’t know what it was, I told him and then I took it outside and let it go, it was cool to watch it finding a place to burrow itself in. I didn’t kill it this time, I’m alot older now and I don’t like to kill them now, they can bite you but they are not poisonous.
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Are children of the earth harmful?
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[…] to posts: What Is Your Totem Animal? and WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! (You haven’t lived until you’ve seen ybonesy’s photograph of a Jerusalem Cricket […]
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[…] September 26, 2010 by ybonesy centipede. distant relative (third cousin twice removed) of the lobster, crayfish, and shrimp—which is why the centipede likes to live under rocks legs. anywhere from 20 to 300 pairs, depending on the type (this one being Scolopendra polymorpha, or Desert Tiger centipede) bites. yes, indeed, inflicted by the poison claw that exists just under the head (and some centipedes have stingers in their many legs, so best rule of thumb: Don’t handle centipedes!) dinner. centipedes are meat-eaters (munching on lizards, insects, toads, rodents) and they get eaten by fellow carnivores (owls, coyotes, roadrunners) size. up to 6-8 inches, average 4-5 (either range spells “t-o-o b-i-g”) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ This centipede showed up on a walk on the ditch that my daughter and I took shortly after I wrote the piece Centipede Dreams. My daughter was in no mood to hang out with me while I picked up a small stick and caused the centipede to walk in circles as I tried photographing it with my iPhone. I don’t think the centipede thought much of me either, but I had fun. -Related to post WRITING TOPIC — INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! […]
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[…] this planet alone, that there are ancient burr oaks, Southern live oaks, slithering snakes, hairy spiders, playful black bears and white winter squirrels. I am grateful that the decisions that matter most […]
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