Take me out to the ball game!

  I found the culprit!  Some critter has been nibbling on the roots of my cabbages for the past few days.  Since the weather has warmed considerably, all sorts of critters are out and about the hillside and my garden is no exception.  While the icy winds of winter kept most insects at bay, the warm, balmy winds of springtime encouraged them all to come out and play.  Not fun!  So far, only the plants in the ground are being munched. Those in the raised boxes have escaped but I am sure this won't last long.  

  Today, the sunshine drew me outside to do a bit of weeding.  Handful after handful of soft grasses were pulled from beneath the cabbages.  I was doing a good job until I felt something squishy and wiggly between my fingers!  Ugh!  I tossed the wad of weeds down and sorted through them until I found the source of ick.  A mole cricket wiggled free and scurried a few inches away.  I guess I squished the little guy a bit hard because he was not looking the healthiest.  I flipped him into the cat's bowl so I could investigate the little guy a bit closer.  Mole crickets are some UGLY critters!

  I usually do not mind critters of any sort but these guys have always given me the heebie-jeebies!  I remember going to ball games way back when I was just a kid and having mole crickets drop onto the bleachers. I suppose they were drawn to the overhead lights and then their short wings would give out in mid-flight or something.  They would plummet to the hard seats and then scurry around like little mad men.  I was terrified of them as a kid.  It did not help to have one drop down the back of my shirt! The mole crickets' ugliness was not an easy thing to snuggle so I was having no part of it!  Today, I still cringe when I find one unexpectedly.  At least today, I was more interested in the critter than squeamish about it.

  The mole crickets do some good as they do eat other critters that can damage crops but they do their own share of damage to plants.  I am quite sure that these are the culprits that are munching the tender cabbages and I must find some way to clear them from the garden. Mole crickets need to stay at ball parks and leave my garden alone!