Local Cricket Dies Of Old Age
1/17/2

The crickets are dead. The last female was dying of old age. And one died in the last two days when they got stuck in a hole in their log.

My internet sources indicated that a cricket will only live about two months. That�s not really true, as I had that oldest female since early November, I think.

I don�t feel like looking up the history of the crickets as documented in my stuffo. Last week, when I gave them food and water, they had gotten a little dry and immediately started drinking water. I suspect that the remaining male expanded some from this as it was him who was stuck in one of the holes in their condo log. I would think that he would be able to get out, and maybe he could have if he hadn�t died of some other reason.

Last night, when I dropped in a piece of carrot. The female cricket, conditioned that food is always in the dish, crawled into the dish. I didn�t see her do it, but the food wasn�t in the dish. I had just dropped it in and I�d missed the dish.

When they were younger, and the heat lamp would be turned on, they would stretch toward it and flick around their legs and arms and those weird arms on their face. They would stand sideways on the side of the log all day and it wouldn�t make them tired.

When the female got into the food bowl, she lay down. Her front two legs were back and out a little and the rest of her legs were straight back. She was moving her face arms a little, stroking the side of the bowl.

I called Aisai to look. �I think they are dying of old age.� I said.

Aisai said it was time to dump them in the grass. The cold would kill them faster, and I sure wasn�t going to flush some pet that I�d had for four months while it was still alive.

It was when I was getting her out and trying to find the others that I found the dead male. The smaller female was not present, or maybe the old dying one was her since it didn�t seem as big as the mature female from a month ago. I�m thinking they ate the old broad and this was the younger one.

So now I�ve officially had crickets as pets. I don�t think I�ll need to do this again. But now I know what it�s like.

Aisai and I would like to get some amphibian or lizard. The only kind I�ll allow in the ten gallon is an Ornate Horned Frog due to their low low low activity level. Aisai would like firebelly toads, which means that I�d like them to be in the 30 gallon, which currently has fish that I have no love for in.

Aisai says she doen�t want to get any nice fish, like Tiger Barbs, until those silver dollar fish are gone. I wanted to get the Pacman Frog and feed all the fish to him. Then when the fish are gone, we move the frog into the 30 gallon.

I think Aisai doesn�t realize that I don�t want poisonous frogs. We have cats. I�m not going to risk their lives.

In other news, I had sushi for the first time yesterday. It was good. It was a lot more normal than I expected. I was really hoping it would be exotic and neato.

We should be getting the photos from the family photo shoot back in December soon. I hope I look good. Aisai has seen the proofs, but I haven�t.

The title I picked for this entry could be more fun if it was:

Area Insects Bite, Sting