a couple nights ago, my snick and jaspurr were enjoying watching and playing with what looked to be a small cricket in our kitchen. so with that on my mind.........
For today's Question of the Day, let's talk about bugs, insects, small reptiles, and the like!
We'll break them down into Flying, Crawling, Jumping, and 'Oddities' categories. In any of these categories --
Are there any you like or don't mind?
How about kinds you dislike?
Any that are simply 'ICK' for you?
Do you have any stories or cute reactions that any of your cat(s) have had to any bug, insect, small reptile, or such?
i'll start!
out here in the rural area in which i live there are many bugs, insects, small reptiles and the like. i've learned not to mind many or most of them. i've found that bees tend to be attracted to me, and love to hover around my knees. they never sting me, and i think they may be attracted to my perspiration/sweat behind my knees (the back of my legs, behind my knees). so i don't mind bees. i love butterflies, ladybugs, and always try to herd any toads i see off of my lawn before mowing the grass. when my niece was much younger, she was totally fascinated by worms -- so i don't mind them, and i know how beneficial they are to the soil. i don't mind crickets or grasshoppers either. spiders are different for me. the only kind of spider i don't mind are the daddy long legs kind. if i find one in my house, i'll transport it outside...where it can go about it's business in a more appropriate setting.
i definitely dislike slugs and grubs, and aphids. it doesn't bother me to handle them, but i usually set the slugs and grubs out for the birds to feed on. well, the slugs may just dry out in the sun. snakes i don't mind if i know they're not poisonous. the problem is that i cannot tell which type of snake those i occasionally come across outside are -- poisonous or not poisonous (or is it venomous???). then there's 'may flies'. i'd never come across those until a couple years ago. from my research about them online -- they fly in groups, looking for people/cattle/other mammals to bite. you cannot just shoo may flies away, you literally have to escape them by going indoors and then give them time to move on. may fly bites are incredibly itchy. i don't like ants either. here we get what we call 'piss ants', which are tiny black ants, that find their way into our homes in search of food. i'm extremely careful to keep crumbs and such cleaned up in my house, so we only occasionally with get some of those tiny ants in our house -- looking for but not finding food here. outdoors we have yellow (meadow) ants here too. mosquitos are bugs that i dislike very much. i almost never go outdoors after dark, because i know the mosquitos will bite me mercilessly.
ICK for me are things like palmetto bugs (actually a variety of cockroach) and cockroaches. palmetto bugs look to me like prehistoric cockroaches, or cockroaches on steroids -- they're definitely in the 'oddities' category IMO. these are bugs that would in all likelihood survive a nuclear bomb exploding.
snick has always been much more interested in bugs than in birds. several years ago, snick found a small black ant on our kitchen floor and was creeping along after it and sniffing at it. at one point she bit that ant, and the expression on her face looked like she was thinking, 'ick, bitter tasting'. the cricket that i mentioned was in our kitchen a couple nights ago, snick enjoyed watching it.
jaspurr is interested in both birds and insects. he absolutely loves ants. he doesn't try to eat them, but loves to sniff them and will roll around on the floor where an ant has crawled. he seeks out where he can smell the ant has been and then rolls on that spot. that same cricket in our kitchen a couple nights ago, jaspurr enjoyed trying to catch it/pounce on it while snick watched him.
okay, now it's your turn!
For today's Question of the Day, let's talk about bugs, insects, small reptiles, and the like!
We'll break them down into Flying, Crawling, Jumping, and 'Oddities' categories. In any of these categories --
Are there any you like or don't mind?
How about kinds you dislike?
Any that are simply 'ICK' for you?
Do you have any stories or cute reactions that any of your cat(s) have had to any bug, insect, small reptile, or such?
i'll start!
out here in the rural area in which i live there are many bugs, insects, small reptiles and the like. i've learned not to mind many or most of them. i've found that bees tend to be attracted to me, and love to hover around my knees. they never sting me, and i think they may be attracted to my perspiration/sweat behind my knees (the back of my legs, behind my knees). so i don't mind bees. i love butterflies, ladybugs, and always try to herd any toads i see off of my lawn before mowing the grass. when my niece was much younger, she was totally fascinated by worms -- so i don't mind them, and i know how beneficial they are to the soil. i don't mind crickets or grasshoppers either. spiders are different for me. the only kind of spider i don't mind are the daddy long legs kind. if i find one in my house, i'll transport it outside...where it can go about it's business in a more appropriate setting.
i definitely dislike slugs and grubs, and aphids. it doesn't bother me to handle them, but i usually set the slugs and grubs out for the birds to feed on. well, the slugs may just dry out in the sun. snakes i don't mind if i know they're not poisonous. the problem is that i cannot tell which type of snake those i occasionally come across outside are -- poisonous or not poisonous (or is it venomous???). then there's 'may flies'. i'd never come across those until a couple years ago. from my research about them online -- they fly in groups, looking for people/cattle/other mammals to bite. you cannot just shoo may flies away, you literally have to escape them by going indoors and then give them time to move on. may fly bites are incredibly itchy. i don't like ants either. here we get what we call 'piss ants', which are tiny black ants, that find their way into our homes in search of food. i'm extremely careful to keep crumbs and such cleaned up in my house, so we only occasionally with get some of those tiny ants in our house -- looking for but not finding food here. outdoors we have yellow (meadow) ants here too. mosquitos are bugs that i dislike very much. i almost never go outdoors after dark, because i know the mosquitos will bite me mercilessly.
ICK for me are things like palmetto bugs (actually a variety of cockroach) and cockroaches. palmetto bugs look to me like prehistoric cockroaches, or cockroaches on steroids -- they're definitely in the 'oddities' category IMO. these are bugs that would in all likelihood survive a nuclear bomb exploding.
snick has always been much more interested in bugs than in birds. several years ago, snick found a small black ant on our kitchen floor and was creeping along after it and sniffing at it. at one point she bit that ant, and the expression on her face looked like she was thinking, 'ick, bitter tasting'. the cricket that i mentioned was in our kitchen a couple nights ago, snick enjoyed watching it.
jaspurr is interested in both birds and insects. he absolutely loves ants. he doesn't try to eat them, but loves to sniff them and will roll around on the floor where an ant has crawled. he seeks out where he can smell the ant has been and then rolls on that spot. that same cricket in our kitchen a couple nights ago, jaspurr enjoyed trying to catch it/pounce on it while snick watched him.
okay, now it's your turn!