Time for crickets...

My husband and I went into town today to have lunch at one of the little cafes there on Main Street. Yes, our small town really does have a Main Street.  I think that's a rule for every small town.

Every year at this time, there is an influx of black crickets. Hundreds of them must march across Main Street and then meet their cricket-maker on the sidewalk where the concrete meets the buildings. Littered all along the sidewalk were the black crickets and if you didn't watch where you were walking, you would hear that awful crunching sound as your shoes smashed down on a crisp cricket. And yes, the dead crickets become crispy like Corn Flakes because they've been baking in the sun as they lay there taking their last breaths.

I have to think that the store-owners on that street must spray the sidewalks with some sort of bug-killer because why else would all of those crickets die when they get to that stretch of their journey. I've not noticed the cricket parade on the other streets in town... just that one particular street. Happens every year around this time.

We also had one black cricket in the house last night... it was on the silk curtains in my dressing room, and when I went in there, I heard its legs moving along the curtain as it actually walked upwards towards the valance. Give me a blessed break.  I didn't want to spray the curtains.... I waited with that can of bug spray till the cricket got up over the valance and started walking on the wall.

That's when I sprayed him.. and that's when he started to fly towards the center of the room. And that's when I screamed.... and my husband came running out of his office to see what the problem was... and when I told him that I had to spray a cricket, he gave me a lecture that crickets were good and wouldn't bite or sting. In my opinion, a "good" cricket stays outside the house.

The cricket landed on a table-top.... and I closed the door to that room and let him die in peace. Then I scooped him up with the little hand-vac thing that's been a life-saver in my little country bug world out here.

Two must-haves: a can of Bengal Gold bug spray on every floor of your house, and a hand-vac thing to pick up the remains of what has been sprayed.