Stick Bug

Oh poor stick bug. He was a big one. I feel partially responsible for him becoming lizard lunch, though. This is not a confession, really, but more a narrative.

After our road trip, my pretty emerald green Eclipse (just had to throw that in for the envy factor) was skanky. Kitty litter on the seats. Billions of dead bugs on the front. She needed a good bath. I took her to the car wash and got the expensive package which took freakin' forever.*

While waiting, I fixed the deck swingy chair. It had a missing bolt, and I fiddled with it and got it so that if they go get a new nut, it will be fine. On the armrest of the chair was a big old walking stick bug. I thought he was going to be in for some trouble if someone sat on the chair and put their hand over him. I don't know if that kind of bug has a sting-- I suspect not, though.**

So I got a long stick and moved the Stick Bug over to some ivy. He seemed happy there. I could see him blending in among the ivy leaves very cleverly-- if you didn't know he was there you didn't know he was there.

But then I saw the big green gecko lizard closing in. Apparently it was lunchtime. The lizard tried to clamp down on El Sticko's midsection. I shooed him off. El Sticko made tracks to escape. But I couldn't guard El Sticko forever, and lizards gotta eat too.

Just before my car was ready & I was ready to leave, I saw a flurry of activity and Lizard Breath could be seen moving about. I'm fairly certain El Sticko was a late lunch.

So I feel a little guilty. If he'd have been on the swing chair, odds are Lizard Breath wouldn't have gotten him. So the moral of this story is we never know whether or not the thing we do which means to be an act of kindness, a helping hand, turns into just the thing that makes someone you tried to help out into lunch.

But I don't think that means we shouldn't help. We do what we think is best. I mean, maybe Lizard Breath was starving, hadn't eaten in weeks. El Sticko might have been surly, mean, rude, perhaps even a criminal, for all I know. And Lizard Breath found a nice big meal that tided him over for ages. (I still feel very guilty though).

*But she sure is shiny!
**OOOH! On looking, it turns out that even the common bug has a defensive spray which can cause "discomfort" if you poke at him. Good thing I used a long stick! And maybe Lizard Breath had more of a battle than he expected!
***I also had this lady assure me that even if the bug was a biter, she had heard that they're mouths were too small to bite a human. That is an old urban legend usually associated with Daddy Long Legs, though. I think I've talked about it before....So I had to sort of feel smug to know better about that issue than her. I mean, mosquitoes have small mouths, and so do fleas. How big do you think a bug's mouth has to be to bite you? Hmmm?