Buggin' Out!

Casting a long shadow

Buggin' Out.  That is what I do when I see a bug.  I think that is where the phrase originated, if I were to guess.  I don't much like spiders, earwigs, beetles, or creepy crawly anything.  There are a few exceptions though.

Lately I have been busy at work or doing pre-winter house chores so I haven't had as much time behind the lens as I would like.  I painted the dock on our pond, and lost many minutes off my life by being startled by spiders that make the cracks and crevices of the dock their home.

But this past month I twice had unexpected encounters of the bug kind that led to some decent shots to share.  But luckily both times I had brave men with me to protect me in the event things went horribly wrong and the bugs attacked!

This praying mantis parked himself right in the middle of the sidewalk....although he seemed more afraid of us and kept running away if I got too close.  The macro 300mm came in handy so I could get a close-up without getting up in his grill.



A week or so after my run in with the praying mantis, my nephews came over for a stroll and found some grasshoppers on the driveway.

Immediately the walk was put on hold while they tried to catch the hopping creatures in their hands.  Of course then they came running at me, with hands cupped, grinning wildly as I shrieked like a girl (which makes sense) and ran away!

But like their father, they are a friend to all creatures, so no grasshoppers were harmed in the making of this film.  ;-)  A firm catch and release policy is adhered to....unfortunately these little men will later learn that their fearlessness in the face of bugs will later be used against them by some squealing female who demands they, "kill it! kill it!"  Oh wait....that has happened already....since this week I had the boys killing stink bugs that crawled through the gap in the screen door.  This is a no fly zone, and the boys happily obliged, assassinating a dozen or so stink bugs.

Anyway, back to the blog post at hand.  The boys caught so feisty grasshoppers, one of whom, would not leap from his captors hand, and afforded me the excellent shots below.