Jar O'Bug

You know you’ve crossed the homeschooling line of no return when someone spots an unidentified insect in the hallway of the house (at least unidentified by anyone in your family…you’re probably not going to find a new species of anything lurking in the hallway of your house), and there is a mad scramble to the kitchen for the “bug catching jar”.

The mere fact that our family owns a “bug catching jar” kind of says that we’ve long-since crossed the line, doesn’t it?

Safe in her jar

I won’t lie…I knew that if we had not previously crossed the line, we were right there, teetering on the edge, awaiting some pivotal event to nudge us right over into the land of no return.

Or if we were across, it was just by a hair; I’m certain of it.

We crossed that line this evening.

Actually, I think we took a flying leap deep into the waters.  

I knew once I heard, “Euuuh…what is THAT?”

Closely followed by someone (ok, it was me) yelling, “No don’t kill it! Get the bug catching jar!”

And then, the whole family gathered around to watch Mr. Always Random coax/shove the bug into said jar.

Followed closely by us all hovering around the computer while I attempted to identify the bug; and of course the children didn’t want to go to bed until we discerned, without a shadow of a doubt, what type of bug it was.

It was a "Christmas Eve" excitement.

Yeah…we made a flying leap over the line.

By the way, lest you think I would leave you hanging, it was a “Smith Crawler” or a “Common House Centipede” that we had visiting us…and for the record, I’m not convinced that it is nearly as common as the name might lead one to believe. At the time, none of us recalled ever seeing one before.

But as I have thought about it, I probably have. Though it didn’t look the same all smashed up in a tissue before I flushed it down the toilet.

That was the pre-homeschooler me. Don't judge.

For the record, the Smith Crawler is pretty much harmless to humans, and enjoys the indoors (which is funny to me , because it’s a bug…aren’t they part of nature…which, by nature of nature is OUTSIDE? And how do they know that they “prefer” indoors…did they take a poll? What language do they speak or is it sign language? I mean, the bug does have 15 pairs of legs…the better to sign with, right? OK, I’ll stop…but I insist that you agree. It is funny...you can admit it.).

And it eats other insects. We did have a recurring ant problem this spring, in the PBA’s bathroom (on their toothbrushes – G.R.O.S.S.), but haven’t seen the ants for a while now…

Perhaps we owe this little buddy a big “thank you”?  And maybe we should release him back into the house, so he can tackle all those pill bugs (or the “rolly-polly” bugs as we call them)?

Actually, that was my suggestion to make it like a pet, but Mr. Always Random put the kibosh on that.

Stick in the mud.

But when he released it back outside, she (we decided it was a she, don’t ask me why because I’m really not sure) made a bee-line straight for the house.

She’s probably already back inside. I won’t point it out if I see her again.

And since I know you, my loyal readers, are all about the personal edification, much like myself, you are probably dying to learn more about our visitor and his family tree. So you can find it here.

I’d better get going…I have my denim jumper to wash and my white canvas Keds to bleach! Have a lovely evening!