Little green visitor

Went to make myself a coffee and this little one popped on the kitchen bench (don't know where it fell from). They eat bugs like mosquitoes, but we have an automatic pyrethrum sprayer & I thought that wouldn't be good for it. So, I held out an envelope for it to crawl onto and escorted it outside, where it'll find many bugs to munch. 🙂 🐜 #nature #bugs #lifeinnz

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Apr 5, 2017 at 4:59pm PDT

There are a number of bugs I see in Auckland that I never saw in the USA, either because they’re not native, or they just didn’t seem to be around. The photo above is one of them.

Some people who love bugs, and others hate them, but I think most of us aren’t on that continuum, but a different one: Some bugs we tolerate just fine, and for others, well, we become Thanatos—we are the bringer of death. For me, cockroaches and most spiders are in that last category.

However, bugs like the one above don’t bother me. Part of that is probably because they’re not a threat to humans, and also because I know they eat “bad” bugs like mosquitoes. I saw a bug very much like this one outside the house recently, and the one pictured may be the same one for all I know. But it’s a fairly common bug, really.

This was one bug I was happy to help continue doing its job eating “bad” bugs, so I escorted it outside. I used an envelope to carry it mostly to avoid hurting it—I have no idea how delicate they are—and because I didn’t want to risk “upsetting” it—or whatever the right word is. I really don’t have much experience with all creatures great and small—just mammals, especially people, dogs, and cats. And mice—I’ve caught a fair few of them over the years.

I wrote bout bugs in New Zealand exactly twice before, as far as I can remember, in 2010 about some sort of stick insect, and also last year about Asian paper wasps as part of my photo challenge that year. Clearly I’m not a bug person.

Still, this little green visitor dropped in and I made sure it could live to catch another mosquito. I like to be helpful.

I had this ready to post yesterday, and then forgot, since I’m swamped with work at the moment. Which is a pity because there are so many things I’d like to comment on…