The Sunday before Halloween, Geoff and I carved a pumpkin. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in about ten years. We carved a basic Jack-o-Lantern face, with gap teeth and turned down eyebrows. I didn’t want the deer that roam the neighborhood to mess it up so I kept it inside until Saturday morning, when I went to put it outside the house. And here’s what I found…
The whole pumpkin was full of this cotton-like white mold. I tried to clean it out and the pumpkin’s forehead started to buckle. Ended up tossing the whole thing and we didn’t have any Halloween decorations for the trick-or-treaters. (Which turned out to be fine, since only one group of trick-or-treaters came all night. Oh well. More candy for me!)
Then, yesterday morning, Geoff found this swimming the breaststroke in the pool…
The picture doesn’t do justice to this insect’s massive size. It was almost three inches long. That’s as big as a hamster! We saw another bug like this a few weeks ago after the heavy rain. That one was on its back, writhing around on the ground in its death throes, and I swear to god it looked like a little alien baby. Anyone know what it is?
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
I’ve seen those before, usually while digging. We turned up about 4 of them helping a friend build a retaining wall a couple of months ago. No idea what they are, though.
It could be a Jerusalem Cricket
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/redmite5.htm
Wow… yes, I think that’s it!