Down with the kids

DSO and Big Sis went shopping together today. In addition to the usual KMart purchases of 150 kg of dog food and socks for the whole family they arrived back with a surprise purchase - a bug catcher! Or, as they appear to be called these days - a creeper keeper. Well done marketing department, makes all the difference!

Now the bug catcher, along with spinning tops are one of those toys that take me right back to my own childhood, and it was with some excitement that I watched DSO, Big Sis and Little Bro set out around the back yard, bug hunting!

Unfortunately, our back yard is not the lush oasis I would like, and its barren desolate soil and sad mangy shrubbery doesn’t play home to many cool bugs. Someone told me healthy soil should turn up 5 worms per shovel - I think at out place you’d be lucky to turn up 5 on our entire property. Please refer to my earlier post, The Vexed Question of the Garden, for further discussion this topic.

Despite this, a short time later Big Sis came rushing inside clutching the bug catcher and yelling - “Look mummy, look mummy!”. The bug catcher appeared to contain a smallish cockroach and a slater. I’m not sure what I expected, maybe a beautiful green grasshopper or a colourful butterfly? DSO was indignant at my criticism and claimed they were actually an earwig and a centipede, which I suppose is marginally better.

The kids were still enraptured, although there were tears when the slater centipede slipped out the air holes and made a run for it. I guess the creeper keeper isn’t designed to keep centipedes after all!