Black Cricket

Last night I killed a Black Cricket!

I do not usually kill insects, I prefer to release them, perhaps because of the naturalistic instinct within me. In fact as a child I used to draw them.
Having said that I do kill wasp nests when I can because they were accidentally introduced to New Zealand and can become plague proportions and they are predictors of our local fauna.

Until I found this one at home, I had forgotten all about Black Crickets, but I chased this one down! They are allusive and tricky to catch and this one led me on quite a chase but he ended up flattened on the floor.

At Sanawari we had no drawers to put our clothes in, so we lived out of our suitcases - not a problem at all. Except for Black Crickets!
These small beasties chirp loudly at night - probably mating calls. And they would find thier way into our suitcases and sing away to entice their mate - keeping us awake at the same time!
We can sleep through a lot - but not drunks on our doorstep or mating dogs - but a lot.
I would have to search in the dark, maybe with a torch or with a lamp to try and find our noisy sleeping companion! Sometime it would take a very long time but once the insect started its chirping, it would do so all the night long. Black and less than a centimeter they were always hard to locate!

This is why I killed him.