Thursday, September 11, 2008

My Mom, the Entomologist

I started my day off with a load of laundry. Normally that’s non-eventful but today I was barefoot and it’s cricket season. There is nothing that crickets like better than hiding in a pile of dirty laundry. You’d think that at some point I would remember that but no. The baby was standing on the back porch watching me as I threw stuff in the washer. Then, out of nowhere, a cricket hopped directly on top of my bare foot. I started screaming and shaking my foot. The baby thought it was a new game and she started shrieking and laughing.

A little later I walked into the kitchen and saw something on the floor. I looked closer and discovered that it was a big, nasty cricket leg.

I was talking to my mom and complaining about the crickets. I told her about the cricket on my foot and the lone leg. It was like a scene from an insect horror movie.

Me- “It was just the leg. How does that happen? I mean, where is the rest of the cricket?”

Mom- “I don’t know. Did you know that when crickets have sex they rub their back legs together? Maybe the sex got a little rough.”

4 comments:

J. said...

Whoa, what is your mom into that she would call losing a limb "a little rough"?

Jack said...

Didja think that the leg may have been a leftover from something much bigger and scarier that ATE the rest of the cricket?

Just sayin . . .

Anonymous said...

like say.....the baby????

Anonymous said...

I think they do lose a leg when they mate. There are LOTS of uni-legged crickets.