(while playing lego together)
Dad: So RJ, if you were at your birthday party and a giant, venomous spider showed up, threatening everyone…
RJ: (curious) Yeah?
Dad: What kind of weapon would you use to fight it? A sword? A spear?
RJ: Well… Hmm… To kill a giant spider,.. I would use… A giant boot!
RJ: (pointing to a Halloween decoration) That one’s broken, Dad.
Dad: It’s probably okay. Spiders have so many legs, they can probably afford to lose one every so often.
RJ: No! They can’t!
Dad: What do you mean? They have eight to start with, right?
RJ: Yes, but after they lose a leg, they can’t be a spider any more… They have to be a pider.
While we were up at Gingin helping with the yearly wine making, a few cute little arachnids happily made their way across the floor to say, ‘Hi‘. Of course, the kids spotted them before anyone else. At first, we thought one of them had been crushed, but it turns out they are just deceptive little creatures and relish disguising themselves in places where they have the opportunity to attack your toes.
We found a suitable plastic container (one with multiple latches, locks, a secondary containment unit and an airlock) and collected them up so we could have a closer look.
Meet "Stingo", a (hopefully temporary) new addition to our family. We think he is a "Lychas spinatus spinatus", but we haven't identified him properly yet. A lot of people just seem to call them "Little Marbled Scorpions".
Unlike our last pet from Gingin (Mr. Bitey), these guys don’t have a disturbing taste for meat (raw, cooked or still attached to your body). They also don’t inspire the same deep, visceral fear that a vividly-coloured, 8 inch venomous predator with the alarming ability to scale any surface at surprisingly high speeds does… And the legs…. Oh god, so many legs…
We did a little research and discovered that they are terrific for getting rid of garden pests! Amazingly, they are happy to feast on slaters (pill bugs), which our garden beds are always crawling with.
Of course, the inevitable question came from RJ. “I can keep these as pets, right? Forever?”
…
…
…
Four hours later, the car was packed and we were driving home to Perth. As I drove, I had visions of our news friends escaping… Our first clue being a yelp from the dog, then yells from the kids, “The scorpions are out!!!”, followed by a lovely evening by the side of the road unpacking our gear and madly stomping around on the ground, eventually ending with us hitching a ride back, our car abandoned on the side of the road with a rough sign in the window, “Danger!!! SCORPIONS!!!!”
Fortunately, we made it home without a problem.
So… We’ve adopted three “Little Marbled Scorpions” for at least a week, just to see how they do. RJ can be responsible for finding food for them, and he’s already named them: “Fango”, “Stingo” and “Pinchers”. Unfortunately, they are venomous.
We wont be bringing them out for cuddles or playtime, but we have Bob for that.
(the cousins have been visiting)
Grammy: Ladybugs are great! They help us up at Gingin by eating the pests that eat our plants.
Mi: Like fruit bats?
Roachy was looking very feeble that morning; on his back, legs stuck in the air, barely moving at all. RJ spent some time finding the right kind of tree bark “medicine” and carefully placing it next to Roachy. The rest of us had pretty much given up hope. Roachy was well on his way to becoming an ex-cockroach.
The next morning over breakfast, we held our breath as RJ carefully looked into the box. To our dismay surprise, we found Roachy happily perched on his piece of bark, antennae waving jauntily in greeting.
“He’s all better! He’ll need some food!” cried RJ.
After a healthy breakfast of lettuce, tomato and mushroom, Roachy was looking terrific. RJ declared him healed and we sent the two of them off together to school.
The teachers must be getting really, really sick of our ‘pets’.
Today we learn that roaches are TOUGH... After the apocalypse the only things that will survive... Cochroaches... Twinkies... and the remains of things held together with duct tape.
(RJ has adopted a cockroach that he found outside. It was suspiciously easy to catch… This morning, over breakfast…)
RJ: I don’t think Roachy is sleeping. He just falls over a lot.
LR: He hasn’t fallen over. He’s dead.
RJ: No! He’s moving! See?
LR: I don’t think he’s feeling very good. Cockroaches aren’t meant to do that.
Dad: Hey guys… Yesterday, when I was spraying the outdoor area for redbacks, he might have gotten some of the spider poison on him. I don’t think it’s very good for cockroaches either.
RJ: (nearly in tears) BUT YOU SHOULDN’T DO THAT! YOU SHOULD JUST SPRAY THE SPIDERS.
LR: He’s dying. He’s going to die RJ. We should let him go.
RJ: No! We can’t do that. Roachy can’t walk very well. Something might eat him.
Dad: We can’t keep him, RJ. He’s like all our wild animal pets, we have to let them go after a while. They just aren’t happy inside.
LR: What if we put him in the front yard?
RJ: No. He can’t hide. See? His legs don’t work properly. It wont be safe for him.
Dad: Can we put some mulch or something in the box with him? He’ll be happier then.
RJ: Yes! We CAN do that. And then we can make him some medicine, so he’ll get better.
This cute little guy is a Cormocephalus hartmeyeri (centipede) and will be staying with us for a little while. We found him just wandering along a path while we were up at Gingin. He’s about 15cm (7 inches) long and has a delightful poisonous bite, so he doesn’t get many cuddles. He’s visiting the kids’ schools, which their teachers are not too thrilled about. The fearless Mom performed the species identification which involved a lot of close inspection.
So far we’ve discovered that he loves to eat chicken and slaters (pill bugs). We’ve nicknamed him, “Mr Bitey”.
We found this cute little guy wandering along the path while we were out this weekend. He's staying with us at home for a little while.
