Cricket Uprising

On a recent walk through the Volcanoes ( Volcanoes worth exploring) there seemed to be a biblical-like plague of crickets.  There were thousands of baby crickets everywhere, landing on my feet, hopping in my mouth, skittering around the rocks, and flying into my hair.  While the United Nations might like us to eat more bugs, and the Aztecs certainly used crickets as a food source, I'm not fond of surprise cricket meals. And I certainly won't be the consumer for bug filled energy bars, sustainable or not. Energy bars I'll avoid

It reminded me of the stories I heard as a child about the locusts devouring the Mormon's fields until saved by seagulls. (Read the whole story here: Locust plague ).  Or Hitchock's famous movie, "The Birds", but with crickets substituting for birds. I've always found that movie distressing, and a recent California case demonstrates that my fears may not be altogether unreasonable. Here's that  real life birds experience,

In any case, my fearless doggy companion, Owen, was oblivious.  Perhaps he liked the extra protein, or the crickets were just too small to register on his doggy radar.  He was far more interested in the knapsacks of two school buses worth of schoolchildren.  He was sure they contained doggy delicacies like peanut butter jelly sandwiches, and he was certain the children would not deny him.  He was disappointed when they only petted him and sashayed on their way.  In the end, we had a nice walk in the hills before leaving the crickets to enjoy the rest of the day.

An article in the local newspaper after I wrote this blog described the insects as grasshoppers, not crickets.  I guess that I'm not destined to be a world-famous expert on bugs!