Let's you and him fight
This time of year the Capt and I are often up long before dawn. At five a.m. this morning, it's still relatively cool outside, and I feel more energetic, eager to get things done in the garden. Sofia and Chica have things to do outside, too, so we file out the front door, into a world of bugs. The air is so full of them, I avoid opening my mouth, and keep a hand near my face to fan them out of my eyes. Flying bugs, clumsy bugs that seem to be spinning in circles at my feet, and millions of crickets. with their wall of sound.
I discriminate when I choose what bugs to kill and what bugs to rescue and relocate outside the house. Without remorse, I'll mash a cockroach or a scorpion, but crickets get a free ride. I use a clear plastic container and a dustpan, and try to avoid damaging their legs or antennae when I scoop them up and carry them out.
Something I didn't know: Wikipedia says crickets can bite, and inflict pain if they chomp on a tender place like, for instance, the webbing between fingers.
In some parts of Southeast Asia and Mexico cricket fighting is popular, with betting, champion breeding and even mafia efforts to control the outcome of fights. I watched a Chinese cricket fight on YouTube, and it seemed to me most of it involved the owners goading the crickets with long, thin sticks to put them in a fighting mood. It's said that good fighting cricket can cost as much as a cow in some parts of China, which seems extravagant considering crickets only live 100 days.
6 comments:
i do the same, saving most bugs including spiders, but of course, no cockroaches. crickets and frogs remind me of visiting my grandma out in the country when i was a little girl in cuba. i love hearing them. i didn't know crickets bite but had heard about the fights-crazy.
doing a long hike today. 9 mi. rt. and 2,900 ft. in el. gain. haven't done anything that steep in a while so i am hoping we'll make it to the top. wish us luck.
teresa
Amazing what a difference a few miles can make. I haven't see any here. Thank goodness, you can keep them. lol
I have zero tolerance for most bugs. And my Hubby is the complete opposite. He'll only kill the "bad" bugs, like scorpions and black widow spiders. But he refuses to kill spiders, crickets and a bunch of other bugs. (I think I've mentioned this before, some Mexicans believe that killing crickets is bad luck.)
It is odd how we separate bugs into good and bad categories. And I do the same. Scorpions -- squash. Cockroaches -- stomp. Spiders, moths, crickets, and almost everything else -- catch and release. It is the roaches that seem to be in the wrong category. They are great cleaners, but they must have bad press agents.
I didn´t know that.
And Steve, we separate bugs into good and bad categories because that´s how they´re born. That´s what I think.
Anonnymouse - It's no stranger to me than cockfights. Or dogfights. I like hearing them too, though sometimes they get awfully loud down here. Last night I was listening to them making just a continuous racket, and then they suddenly stopped. The silence was deafening!
Brenda - Aw, I was going to bring one to you at Spanish class next week.
LL - Thanks for that tip about killing crickets. I never did think it was right, and now I have a reason.
Steve - I haven't really investigated the facts, but I've always been told that roaches carry diseases. So that would put them on the same list as mosquitoes, fleas and ticks, wouldn't it?
Felipe - Your remark reminded me of what Jessica Rabbit said in Who Framed Roger Rabbit..."I'm not really bad, I'm just drawn that way."
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