I Hate Cave Crickets by Surekha Selvaraj
This is inspired by Blake's blog post (which you should definitely read if you haven't already) about her first impressions of Sparta. It struck me that not every place deals with the pain, the suffering, the sorrow, the grief, the fear evoked by these things. They live in your ceilings, on your floors, in your trash can... they are everywhere. And I hate them.
They go by many names, like camel crickets, camelback crickets, and spider crickets, fitting yet disturbing. None of these names change the fact they are the worst insect ever. They are not only crickets, they're also spiders, the worst of both worlds. This abomination and complete freak of nature, known as a cave cricket live in my house, and in my head, rent-free. I know they're literal bugs, but these things have traumatized me.
My first experience was when I was around 5 years old. I had this horse stuffed animal; we were best friends. It was my favorite stuffed animal and I cared for it dearly. One day, I was coming up from the basement, horse stuffy in my hand, when all of a sudden, it started twitching. I feel the slight movements in my hand. At first, I thought it was just my brain overthinking but then I looked down and I realized it was actually moving. My body reacted before my mind and the next thing I knew, it was at the bottom of the stairs having a full-on seizure. Horsey, the horse, never recovered from this tragic incident and had to be put down in the trash, never to be seen again.
This was far from the only incident. I won't bore you with the details, but another moment that comes to mind is when my family put sticky mouse traps, for mice. Instead, we got a wonderful surprise! Cave crickets got stuck in the mouse traps; as they were trying to get out, they ended up ripping their legs off! It was such a lovely site for nine-year-old me. Their love of jumping was also professed when they jumped onto my cousin. I panicked and ran for the hills; she freaked out and quickly followed. Memories.
However, those were all in the past. Over time, they've definitely ¨calmed down¨ and stopped possessing my stuffed animals and ripping their legs off! The only major issue is when they decide to die right before my dance class. They make me have to improvise just to avoid crushing them.
Honestly, cave crickets are just very annoying. They're freeloaders with no respect for personal space, and to be frank, they're very ugly and weird. I hope you enjoy my rant about how I have been personally victimized by these things.
Why do these things exist?
I share your hatred for these creatures...not only are they a waste of life but they just intrude into our properties like its their own.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are speaking out about this horrific monster that plagues out community, I sympathize with the horrors you've faced with these vile creatures, I too fell victim to the repulsive vermin just a few months ago. Picture this, there I am at church camp, 7:15am, physically, mentally, and emotionally preparing myself to be with children for 8 hours. I'm sitting on the floor contemplating applying for the job when ALL OF A SUDDEN i am furiously "attacked" by the decrepit mongrel. There it is, sitting on the wall, its neck turned completely around as it looks in my eyes and begins to suck every ounce of joy from my body, its legs, its antenna, its eyes, the way its body looks like its folding in on itself, still haunt me to this day. I have yet to recover from the incident and it never even touched me. I can't imagine the pain you must have gone through that day. They have no right to behave the way they do and personally I believe that we should put a stop to their madness. You and horsey the horse deserve justice. The only purpose of these things are to traumatize us and it is unfair. /j
ReplyDeleteI refuse to let Horsey the horse die in vain
DeleteAnna - I love that you shared your own story! You are a great storyteller!
DeleteI am so happy that you decided to speak out on this. Cave crickets are unnecessary and need to be stopped. I have an irrational fear of them even since a woke up to one on my pillow. They don't understand personal space, I find it quite disrespectful.
ReplyDeleteCave Crickets are the dumbest thing to ever be created because most of them are completely and utterly blind so they literally just jump around aimlessly till they reproduce or die or whatever it is that they do! In my basement we have a screen door with tile next to it and if you go down there and there aren't at least ten dead cave crickets on it your lying.
ReplyDelete