Creepy Crawlies!

As a rule, I am not afraid of bugs. I had better not be since I can usually be found playing in the garden or hiking around in the woods where there is always an abundance of critters. They do not scare me..I am more interested in them than anything. The insect world seems to teem with critters of all shapes, sizes and colors and I think just about all of them live on the Bayou with me!

I was out in the garden examining the crowder peas when I noticed a rather large grasshopper. He was just lounging about eating my pea leaves! I did not bother to shoo him away as the peas have way too many leaves. This excess of leaves makes it difficult to find the peas so I figure maybe he was helping me in his own hungry way. Grasshoppers are not terrifying..they are not even remotely scary. They do not threaten in any way but merely look at you with their beady eyes and munch.

A bit later I came across another of the Leaf footed Bugs. I knew now that these are harmless even if they do make enough racket to wake the dead and smell nigh as bad as a polecat! This ugly-bug was not one that would make the skin crawl unless you were one prone to the heebie-jeebies!

Why I did not even get a case of the jitters when a Praying Mantis decided to use my clothesline poles as a shortcut to the blueberry bushes. I was ok..this little guy is definitely a friend! I can recall a time when I realized that perhaps I was pushing the "friendly" bug thing a bit too far with my children. One night about twenty years ago, I went in my daughter's bedroom to hug her goodnight just to find her happily playing with a Praying Mantis. She wanted to keep him in her room and let him sleep on her pillow! Nope, Praying Mantids do not scare me!

Live bugs just do not frighten me..fake ones on the other hand..might. I have been working on the hallway for about a week now. With all of the tearing out and reconstruction, the doors have been propped open for extended periods of time..anything smaller than an elephant could have crawled in unnoticed. (Maybe even the elephant could have if he tiptoed!) Many things probably did..and many things will be swatted as they make their appearance known. Today, however, when I was painting the door jambs, I heard what sounded a lot like a critter crawling around somewhere in my near proximity. I listened..where and what was that noise? Flippity..flippity..flippity! Ok..so there was a critter here somewhere. I grabbed a magazine and started the search. Flippity..flippity. I narrowed the sound down to my daughter's vacant room..oh, geez...that Praying Mantis could not possibly be still in there! Flippity..flippity..it was going crazy now! I had to start giggling when I found my "critter". There in a jar was this butterfly thing that my sweet niece had given to me back in March. It is a fake Monarch Butterfly that has a little fiber optic cord attached to it that runs to a battery in the jar lid. Static makes it flip flop around the jar just as a real butterfly would if disturbed. It must have been very disturbed as the goofy thing was going bonkers in the jar! Perhaps the battery is running low or maybe there is just a mass of static electricity in my daughter's bedroom..who knows. I must say..this one had me a tad bit scared..not of the bug itself but rather that one was flippitying around in my house! Thanks, Eva! You and little Evan brought me the only critter that gave me the heebie-jeebies..and it was not even real! heehee!