Pointless salamander photo of the day:

This really should have been put with Friday's post, but I didn't realise I'd be blathering about the salamanders as much as I did. I did, though, so just for your edification and enlightenment (or if you were maybe interested at all?) here's a quick shot of the workplace salamanders. From the bottom to the top, that's Boris, Natasha, and Fluffy Spirit. And if they look like they're on some kind of secret salamander mission in the photo, that's only because I threw some crickets in there a little before I took the picture. Eating crickets is about the only kind of mission that Tiger Salamanders have. Well, that and burrowing.

Have I ever told you how much I hate crickets? Oh, I'm sure I have, and I'm sure you can find multiple iterations of what I'm about to say if you use the blog's search box. For now, then, the short version. I hate crickets. I was insect-phobic as a child (that'd make me an entomophobe, for those of my two fans who are into latinate labels), and while I grew out of -- or convinced myself out of -- much of that, crickets and I have no love lost. They stink, they're stupid, and when we first started using crickets for feeding (a few years back, when we had a couple of elderly toads. But that's another story) I could barely bring myself to touch them.

Not a big deal now, since I do it at least once a week, but I still don't particularly like crickets.

For those who are into the herptile thing at all, we use four-week crickets for feeding even though the salamanders could easily handle five-week and five-week would probably save us money, all things considered. There's one very simple reason for that: four-week crickets don't tend to sing, but five-week ones definitely do. Add chirping to the list of things I don't like about crickets, is what I'm saying. Oh sure, you might think it's pleasant to hear a single cricket going at it on a hot summer evening, but when you're buying crickets by the fifties or hundreds and they're in an office, the sound is NOT SOOTHING.

I... hate crickets.

But I'm ok with the salamanders, even if they're not much brighter than the crickets.

I guess I'd better be ok with salamanders, since our last garter snake kicked off this week and it'll probably be a while until we get ourselves another one.






My workplace is a bit different from yours, I'd bet...