The Cricket in the Box

Ever wondered what a cricket eats? Well, put on your learning caps - you're about to find out!

There's one sitting in my waste-paper box right now, MUNCHING HIS WAY THROUGH A PAGE! He's made quite an inroad into it in the past 5 minutes, looking a bit like that big bite someone took out of the bottom of Australia (now THAT'S a scary story!).

For now I'm content to let him eat and give the occasional click, but if he tries to find a home in my shoes (while they're on my feet), I'm not going to be so tolerant. One of his relatives tried that a while back and it was not a good experience for either of us.

I'm generally of the "live and let live" camp, and believe everything on this planet has a right to existance and a place and a purpose - other than mosquitoes, who have no purpose whatsoever, and should never have been allowed on the Ark in the first place. Flies, the jury is still out on.

There are others here who don't think quite like that - anything crawling or creeping or hopping around in their office is promptly stood on and ground into the carpet. Poor beasts.

OK, so I'm not fond of things with more than 4 legs, and the bigger they are the worse I feel about them. But still, there is a reason they're on this planet. Imagine if we were squashed every time we crossed the path of some larger planet-dweller?

The cricket has moved on to page two, which has a bit of writing on it. Perhaps he's literate.