Letting Live, in Love and Peace

July 15, 2016 by Michelle Novak

I just caught another lovely creature who was clinging to the ceiling near the front door. She was there this morning when I rushed out and was still there this evening, in the same place. I did my careful balancing act on the chair and gingerly caught her…

This one is not a Cave Cricket like the one I caught in the house earlier this week, but rather a Speckled Bush Cricket. It is of the Katydid family, known for their singing (not from their mouths but from the scraping of their wings along their bodies)…

Look how gorgeous her beautiful green! Know how I know she’s a gal? Her very obvious ovipositor at her rear, an appendage that pushes into the dirt and then lays eggs!

Fun Fact: Do you know what the differences between a cricket and a grasshopper are?

Crickets have long antennae while grasshoppers have short antennae.
A cricket’s song comes from rubbing its wings while a grasshopper makes music by rubbing its legs together.

In the house, she’d been unmoving on the ceiling and went mostly motionless when caught. The moment I brought her outside, her antennae twitched and she started walking around. It was like she immediately sensed she was outdoors once more. Freedom!

Love this photo, her two red eyes looking at me upside down. I probably appeared as a giant monster. Think it’s too late to return to college and become an entomologist? I sure love bugs!

Here is to the sanctity of life, however great or small, and letting live in love and peace…

Beware The Ant’s Kiss

April 28, 2016 by Michelle Novak

I am very fond of insects. I just think the world of bugs is fascinating. Because I feel this way, and also have an ongoing desire to be peaceful with all creatures, I’m not one to smush a spider or stomp on an ant. Nope, I collect every single one that makes its way into the house, and deposit it outside. I have been doing this for years…

But for the last few weeks, we started to see some Carpenter Ants around the house. Though not in great mass, there have been enough soldiering around that we’re keeping an eye on it. My preference is to not bring in an exterminator with their noxious chemicals if it can be helped. However, I knew that my saving each and every ant (though I tried with the first few), was not the solution.

So, I bought some of those poison ant traps and placed them about, and have [insert a sniffle here] had to smush a number of them. However, the traps are working well and they are diminishing (though I’m putting down a few more for good measure). No one wants Carpenter Ants overtaking their house.

So here I am a few nights ago, relaxed as ever. My honey was out of town, the house was quiet and I was in a state of complete peace. I’m lounging in bed with my computer, watching something funny and pleasant. I reach out to my bedside table for my mason jar of water and bring it to my lips…

Oh heavens! An immediate searing pain on my lips! I pull the glass away and the culprit falls and skitters. A Carpenter Ant. He’d been trying to get a sip of my water. We were both caught off guard when I picked up that glass. He got caught between the rim and my mouth, and he bit me REAL HARD, more than once. Though I don’t blame the poor fellow, I have to say that I still don’t believe that an ant bite could be that powerful!

But the bite wasn’t the only thing…it began to sting something awful. Like lemon juice in a wound. The next morning, the ant bites were visible and tender on my lips. This was nuts, I had to look this up. Granted, I’m a gal who gets strong allergic reactions from just about everything, but geez!

Turns out, this reaction is normal for Carpenter Ant bites, which are quite painful. The bite is made worse, because they inject Formic Acid (bee stings contain this acid as well) into it (why I felt like there was pepper spray on my mouth). Even the next morning, the bites tingled (ouch!) and the marks were visible. Some folks get bite marks that swell to the size of a pea and remain there for a week!

In spite of it all, I won’t hold a grudge. The little dude was probably horrified that they were about to be gulped down by a giant! My lips are fine now, nothing a little lipstick wasn’t able to cover. But I’ll never forget that feisty ant kiss! Yikes!