Today has not been a good day for anyone who has a moderate to strong dislike of weird and creepy critters. This morning, while I was attempting to accomplish some yard work before the major heat set in, I came across one of these...
Being thoroughly disgusted, but a tiny bit intrigued by the sheer length and the repulsive flat head, I fetched a container and set out to capture it. Picking it up with a stick, the yucky, sticky, slimy thing - gulp - tore in half. The head end kept on moving and now that I've done a little research it looks like I've got myself the makings of TWO land planaria. Oh, the luck! Turns out a primary method of propagating themselves is chopping themselves up into little bits and regenerating their primitive nervous and digestive systems. Wow. You really CAN learn something new every day. Strangely enough, as I continued my yard work I came across 3 more of the creatures. I smooshed them (which I read later was completely the wrong thing to do....wrap them in tissue paper and dry them out) and was unable to eat for hours.
As if that weren't enough, I discovered that a scorpion I had spotted in a light fixture a couple of days ago and assumed was DEAD and could therefore wait until school started for me to disassemble the light and dispose of it's dessicated carcass (or better yet, let BB deal with it), was in reality still very much ALIVE, and apparently just kicking back and enjoying the cush life in his private little globe light. Oh. My. God. Little A made up his own game called "Throw things at the light and watch the scorpion run around the globe".
Scorpions are my nemesis. If I ever had to have a showdown between myself and my arch enemy, it would be me against a giant scorpion, just like Perseus' (aka a pre-L.A. Law Harry Hamlin) battle with the giant scorpions in that 80's classic, Clash of the Titans, which scarred me from a very early age.
Try as I might, I just can't bring myself to respect the scorpion's place in the food chain. I don't feel this hostility toward any other creatures, although cockroaches, hairy spiders, and overgrown eyebrows come pretty close. And now, land planaria.
3 comments:
traveling around blogger.
nice kids and nice writing.
i am from brasil.
kisses
Oh, LORD! That thing looks downright prehistoric. Kind of hammerhead shark-y, too. The thing that gets me - and ruins my legendary appetite - is the cockroach. Just thinking of the little buggers makes me ever so nauseous. What else can I say except "Boogie On, Reggae Woman!" I like to invoke Stevie in these times of stress.
scorpions eat roaches! they are lovely. the whole enemy of my enemy is my friend business. they also eat black crickets and those are kind of gross too. and spiders eat scorpions. do roaches eat spiders? we could start a new paper-rock-scissors kind of game.
Post a Comment