Then, this morning, as Twyla and I were traversing Central Park in downtown Corozal, I chanced upon this 'little' critter waltzing across the tiles.
Such a Cutie |
Then, after I got back from walkies, another message from the gardening folks with the following dire headline:
"TODAY I AM SEEING ABOUT
A HUNDRED FLYING IN
OVER THE WATER FROM CERROS!!!!
They are flying in quite high just 3 or 4 at a time, but they are continuing to arrive, so you should all be ready to do battle before they do serious damage".
Looks like the invasion has started. Good timing too, in a literary sense, I'm deep into reading The Gathering Storm, by Winston Churchill, all about the preparations and events in the time before World War II. There are some eery parallels, I must say.
The garden club also provided the following information about the invaders and their uniforms:
"The locusts look like a gigantic grass hopper about 4 or 5 inches long. They are a greeny-brown color when they are sitting with their wings closed. When they fly you can see the bright orange color of their very large wings. When they fly, they look the size of a small bird, but they fly very slowly at a steady pace. Not darting about like a large butterfly or dragonfly".
My advice right now, is if you venture out, either carry a big stick to whack 'em, or a can of Begone (Baygon), a local insecticide, or both. They're too damn big to argue with.
I remember, as a wee lad in the 50's, we were living in Tripoli, Libya (my dad was in the US Air Force). Several times while we were there, we had locusts flying over and landing. They ate everything in sight. Clouds of them flying were thick enough, that we could throw rocks from our school playground and be sure of hitting 4 or 5 of the critters with each volley.
I hope our diligence and preparedness now prevents a similar situation. Be on guard!
4 comments:
Dave - the locusts have been here for some time now. Here is a story of them destroying farm crops and trees in Carmelita.
http://edition.channel5belize.com/?p=36221
I'll bet they'd be a tasty snack! Fry 'em up and remove the legs!
Dave - I googled Locust Belize and here is an interesting blog from Cayo and a tourists photo at Altun Ha:
http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com/2010/02/belize-nemo-belize-emergency-management.html
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2872507850012073666grkasv
Hi Alan,
Damn big bugs, aren't they? I hope this doesn't turn into a big deal. They can really devastate whole regions once they start multiplying.
They look about the size of a hot dog... Hmmm, I wonder how they'd barbecue?
Cheers,
Dave
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