Creeping Crawling Critters

Creeping crawling critters. My house is full of them.

I often use the schoolroom as a place to work in the afternoons after school hours. It is not uncommon to be sitting in the schoolroom and to suddenly hear something. I stop, strain, and try to figure out what the scratching or thumping noise might be, only to look up and see the lineup of glass jars. The jars are all about eye level, sitting on a ledge, and they are full of insects. The culprit might be a large bodied beetle that is scratching the side of the jar, trying to climb out, but just falls to the bottom. Or it could be a winged insect that tries desperately to escape by flying away, only to realize that the glass is quite inescapable.

The schoolroom in our jungle home.

My little Wild naturalists can tell you where all their specimens were found, what tree they were most likely on, if they like the rain, if you only find them during the sunny parts of the day, and if they have some kind of defense mechanism. They surprise me all the time with their knowledge of their surroundings.

It is for that reason that I sigh, take a deep breath, and don’t complain about all the bugs in the schoolroom . . . and in the loft . . . and in the storage bins . . . and taking up room in my freezer. :)