Wednesday, November 9, 2011

It's a Camel Cricket Leg!

So, did you guess what this was?
This is a camel cricket leg.






To me camel crickets look like a cross between a cricket and a spider.
Here's a website about camel crickets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae

As the weather gets colder, we get camel crickets in the house.  Not a lot, but usually we have at least one camel cricket a day somewhere in the house.  
The horrible thing is that the cats love to eat them, but the cats always pull off the back legs and leave them laying on the floor.  I've watched the cats work at pulling off the cricket's hind legs with their teeth, while they hold the cricket body with their paws.  I guess the legs get stuck in the cat's throat.  All we find are the legs, and we know the cats ate the cricket body!  I certainly would prefer the cats didn't eat crickets at all, that's for sure.  And yes, the chickens love them, too!

I call these crickets "George".  As in, "I found a pair of George legs on the bathroom floor today."
The first time I saw a camel cricket, I had no idea what it was, and after I ran screaming out of the room, I named it George, and eventually captured George and took George outside.  I assumed George was some kind of freak of nature, a one-of-a kind creature that shouldn't be killed. 
And then more and more George's came to visit, and I realized George's are a normal pest around here.
George, stay away or you may lose your legs!

8 comments:

Country Girl said...

You should research these crickets a little. I know that when I grew up on the farm we had those big black crickets. Our cats used to eat them all the time. We noticed that the cats that ate a lot of them died. Some where a long the way I heard it was a chemical in the crickets makeup that caused the cats to die when they ate too many of them. I really don't know if that is true. But I know for a fact that crickets ( at least those big black ones) can carry tape worms. I once saw a smashed cricket on the pavement outside with a tapeworm crawling out of it! Totally gross.

John Going Gently said...

well Ill be darned!

Farm Girl said...

We had those in the house when we moved in more than we do now and yes, the cats do pull the hopper legs off first.
I have had lots of vingerroons in the house this fall when I only see them in the spring. My cats do the same thing to them and I have to clean up parts. Ick! I am so glad you posted what it was.

CaliforniaGrammy said...

I've never heard of nor seen a Camel Cricket. And now I'm gonna have to look up "vingerroons" as Farm Girl talks about!

Dog Trot Farm said...

A camel cricket leg, well, I have learned something new today. Now can you tell me what a vingeroon is? What strange creatures you folks have. Hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall day. Blessings from Maine, Julie.

Razzberry Corner said...

Country Girl - I read up on horsehair worms in crickets when I was researching the camel cricket. Very interesting. I'm actually going to do a blog post about it, I thought it deserved it's very own post!

John - Yes what your missing? :)

Farm Girl - vingerroons, you say??? I just looked that up- they are scorpions! Whip tail scorpions! Scary! Gross! They are was scarier than a camel cricket! I'll keep my camel crickets, and you please keep those vingerroons away from me! :) Good luck with them! You deserve a HUG!!

CA Grammy - I never saw or heard of a camel cricket before I moved out here in the woods. But, I've never seen many things until I moved out here. It's an experience, that's for sure!

Julie - Greetings to you in Maine from me here in Maryland! I don't have any vingerroons, I just googled it and shrieked in horror to imagine poor Kim with those in her house! And her cats eating them!

~Lynn

Kessie said...

A camel cricket? Eww! They must be tasty, though.

Re: your reply to Farmgirl about vinegarroons: I looked those up, and although we've always called them that, ours are actually called Sun Spiders, another type of scorpion, only tailless. And just as ugly. :-)

Carla said...

Not fond of crickets. Camel crickets here tend to find their way into my closet. Nothing less fun than putting on your shoes and finding something moving in the toe---well, finding scorpion is worse.