Photo from Colossal Art & Design.

I flipped a bug and I liked it.

While there may be more emotional reward when you flip a turtle over from its back, it does feel good to rescue bugs every now and then.

I thank 1,000 Awesome Things for that Reminder,

… he was just lying on his back like a fool, arms and legs frantically pawing the air in a terrible attempt to flip over. Well I flicked him a bit and he flipped over before scampering away to safety.

Hey, sometimes insects just need our help.

Such a sweet thing to do!

Photo by Ben Sutherland.

My brother once had a skinny old dog that remained skinny even when well fed.  Until 17 years ago when the cicadas came out.  That dog fattened up so much you could nearly see the wings sticking out through the sides.

Well, my dogs today are enjoying that feast again as the cicadas have made their return – by the millions – to my part of the country.  We knew they were coming because reporters have been telling us for weeks to brace ourselves.  Then last week we started noticing the dogs sniffing around by the bottom of our trees.  Now we can hardly get them in because they just eat and eat and eat.

People have been warning us that the exoskeleton of the cicadas can hurt dogs, but the National Geographic says they really are a delicacy,

Dogs and cats may also avail themselves of the cicada smorgasbord. It does them no harm, although if they eat too many they may have some difficulty digesting a surfeit of cicada skins. There have been reported cases of dogs’ digestive tracts becoming blocked by eating too many cicadas.

Well, chow down I say to my dogs.  I won’t be eating any at any point in the future, though.

While there is probably some logical scientific explanation for this, it is completely alien and creepy to me.  Spiders in Pakistan are encasing entire trees,

Forced to find refuge, the spiders gathered in trees with mixed results. The arachnids’ combined web efforts did cut down on mosquitoes and the elevated potential for malaria, but the dense webs also lessened the amount of sunlight reaching the leaves on the trees. As a long-term result, many of the trees were killed. With the scorching sun that bears down on Pakistan regularly, the loss of shade may be another less obvious natural disaster for humans in the area.

National Geographic has lots of photos.

Photo by David Goehring via flickr creative commons.

Where I live, these are called cave crickets.  Easily they are the single mot terrifying cricket around because when you try to get rid of them, they leap TOWARD you rather than away.

Photo by Dendroica Cerulea via flickr creative commons.