Bugs

I have never really been afraid of insects and other creepy crawlies, although things with more legs than I can count straight away have always freaked me out a bit. I am used to the bugs in Edmonton who have to be strong enough to somehow survive the 8 months of frigid winter. This lovely period of cold that I usually hate seems nice now that I am here in New Zealand, where it may be green all year round, but that means the bugs have the whole year to grow and make me squirm that much more.

My least favourite are the cicadas. These little buggers are absolutely everywhere outside, and although it may be hard to see them blending in with the trees, their endless vibrating clicks drive me up the wall. Sometimes when I'm reading or just sitting outside, I will suddenly realize I am grinding my teeth to the beat of their sound. I actually didn't know what they looked like for weeks until I got to the Warwick House, and they started to fly around. They don't really like humans, so only the rare one has landed on me, but the noise noise noise! It's hard to imagine that I will get used to them eventually.

This one is actually dead, I couldn't have gotten so close otherwise

One bug that I was a bit excited to see in New Zealand was the praying mantis. These bugs are crazy. After the female mates, she bites the head off the male. I have seen quite a few of the mantis' here,  but there are a lot more Daddy-Long Legs who like to build webs in the corners of the rooms I clean.  Usually I just lift my vacuum up and suck them down. One day I found a fully grown praying mantis sitting on top of the shower. As always, I raised my vacuum hose and ran it over the bug. I may like you when you're outside, guy, but you really can't be in my territory. When I pulled the vacuum away, the praying mantis was still there. I tried again. And again. It just sat there, staring at me. I realize the bug probably has little to no brain, but I swear it was shaking its head and saying “Nice try sweetums, now please aim that vacuum elsewhere, I'm comfortable.”

Baby Mantis!

I was sitting downstairs in the living room one evening when I saw something black move out of the corner of my eye. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me until I saw a giant 8 legged creature finish his trek across the room. It went under the curtain, so I tried to put it out of my mind until the spider started to move again. I weighed my options. If I left it where it was, it might crawl up on me which was something I was not keen to risk. If I killed it, there would be spider guts all over the carpet which I really didn't want to clean up. The only solution in my mind was to trap it in an empty pasta jar. Success! With a few millimetres of thick(ish) glass between us, I was not afraid to examine my new friend who I had named Humphrey. After a necessary Facebook post about the spider, my brother came up with a link to identify New Zealand Spiders. I think it's a Nursery Web Spider. When Jenny came home the next morning, and she said it was a harmless wood spider who liked eating mosquitos. That was enough of a reason for me to keep it alive. I opened the top of the jar and tossed it far into the woods that surround the house. It was nice knowing you Humphrey, but please don't come back.