Fire season is just around the corner and you will be heartened to know that I weed whacked today like there was no tomorrow.
I felt a pang of guilt however as various katydid and grasshopper nymphs shot out of the botanical flak.
I knew my old friend Dave Rentz of BunyipCo, aka Mr Smiley, would not approve.
Never mind that his brother John is a retired fire chief.
Dave has had a lifelong love affair with orthops -- grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and yes, even cockroaches.
When the non-biologist sees an entomologist doing his or her thing you often hear the comment "Now I've seen it all."
Others may approach cautiously and ask "what are you doing?"
Mr Smiley's response was an utterance -- "Glasss-hoppah!" given with the crazed look of a character from "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".
You have to admire someone like that.
So I designed the Mr Smiley Orthoptera Reserve, and felt a little better about my carnage.
