Cricket

We seem to have an infestation of crickets in our house this fall.  At any rate, I have removed three or four a week.  For centuries it has been believed in many cultures that a cricket in the house is good luck and to remove it or to kill it is bad luck in the extreme.  I am not so superstitious, but unlike BBBH who has been known to skoosh them, I grab and toss out the door.

Thus to study this phenomenon in greater detail I went to google and opened images.  What should I get?  Insects, of  course.  What, in fact, did I get?  Pictures of men garbed in serious protective gear and holding a strange fat bat.  Say what?  Not one image of a cricket.  What has the world come to?









cricket



Some people believe that an unusual manifestation of crickets in the house portends a hard winter.
Personally I think any winter would be hard for such a tiny creature.  I know that is the case for me.

It is claimed that one can determine the air temperature by counting the number of chirps emitted by a cricket in 14 seconds.  To this number add 40 to get the temperature F.  That is c + 40 = degrees F.

For you in Canada, and in a huge portion of the world if you need your reading C,
count the number of chirps in 25 seconds, divide by 3 and add 4.  That is c/3 + 4 = degrees C.

Get your stopwatch and have at it.  I say as I hear the cheery chirrup of a critter challenging me to oust him from the premises.