Don’t say that word!

I found a locust in the garden this morning. It was sitting on a leaf on one of the lower branches of a tree. I didn’t disturb it but I alerted the tall person. He came to look and took some photographs.

He told me that the long hot summer had encouraged lots of creatures to look for food where people live. He remembered a story published in early August in the New York Times that reported that residents of Tbilisi were becoming alarmed by the numbers of scorpions, snakes and giant locusts in the city. Some people said that the apocalypse was coming. Others said that the giant locusts were caused by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.

The tall person told me not to panic. He remembered seeing locusts in the city but they were normal size. He also said that the one I had found in the garden was also normal size. He should know because he once kept a chameleon as a pet and fed it locusts.

I haven’t seen a scorpion yet but De saw a large snake when we were walking in the forest recently. The tall person said it was almost certainly harmless. However, he went on to say that the story in the New York Times reported that many Georgians traditionally associate snakes with the devil and try to avoid using the word ‘snake’ as they feel it might cause something bad to happen to them. When the tall person asked De about this she said many people are superstitious about snakes and will not use the word.

Interesting. I asked the tall person why the locust I had found in the garden was by itself. He said it could have happened for many reasons but the wind had probably separated it from its swarm. Ah, I hope it finds its friends again – in someone else’s garden!