Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Insect inventory I like bees. I don't know, I just do.  They are purposeful and industrious, and their work seems pleasant. I like the sounds they make.   I like moths, too - particularly the smallish, snow-white and fuzzy variety.  I particularly like watching a moth unfurl its long narrow tongue into the depths of a flower.  Spiders: I don't mind them unless they are alarmingly large, hairy or menacing.  Smallish spiders which display a tendency or desire to leap are also vaguely disturbing, but I would certainly never kill one. When feeling particulary brave, I bend down close and marvel at this or that spider's remarkable cluster of eyes.  I only do this to small, non-leaping spiders, of course.  Then, just to be safe, I praise it.  I say, "what a magnificent quantity of eyes you possess, spider!"   Butterflies are fine, but too pretty.  They seem to lack focus.  Fireflies are excellent, of course. They display the same lack of focus as a butterfly, but the effect is spectacular. I steer clear of wasps, but I don't mind gazing upon them, and I only tear down their nests as a last recourse.  I once tried to move a very small wasps' nest to less-trafficked site in my yard, and was stung three times.  Fuck you very much, wasps!   Cockroaches, fleas and ticks are of course horrible and ugly.  Mosquitoes are disgusting.  Scorpions are the worst.  I once stepped on a scorpion, then watched in paralyzed horror as dozens of tiny scorpion babies swarmed and scattered from beneath my shoe.  Beetles that have armor and make clicking sounds are nice, particularly when their exoskeletons are luminescent.  Junebugs are merely okay, their grasp can be troubling.  7:05:45 PM