Chaos + Growth = Change


Monday, July 11, 2011

Big @$$ Grasshoppers

Let me introduce you to Mr. Eastern Lubber, the Hells Angel of the grasshopper world. We met him on our vacation when he scared the you know what out of my wife. The things are impressive and nasty. We pulled into Bahama House, the first hotel we stayed at in Daytona Beach. Great place but I had one complaint, get to that later. I backed into the parking space and the kids and Pam get out and go around to the back of the van to unload. That's when the screaming started. These things were all over the shrubbery and chewing apart the landscaping like they didn't give a damn. Mr. Lubber averages 5 inches in length, are toxic to most things that eat normal grasshoppers, and when ticked off will spray an irritating substance. These guys have no natural predators and are bug ugly to boot. They will also eat till the place resembles a desert. Oh, one more thing most pesticides have no affect on them.  Luckily they only come around under very specific climate conditions that rarely happens. We watched later that evening as hotel staff took long handled trash tongs to pick them off the plants and drown them in a bucket of water. The guy told us it was illegal to drown them in the Atlantic since they would unbalance the marine ecosystem. WOW! Yes that is the very one that scared my wife. He won't be terrorising any more women. Chaos at it's best.

No comments:

Post a Comment