"By the by...do you know...Praying Mantis?" "You're lookin' at him."

[thesummerqueen]

Tonight, a praying mantis flew into the house. Tonight, I also learned that I, wielder of machetes, cockroach dispatcher, snake-facer and frog-lover, could scream bloody murder.

WHY THE FUCK WAS I NOT INFORMED THAT THESE THINGS COULD FLY?!

What commenced was a scream-fest in which two women ran around the house, one waving a cat and the other a can of Raid until the thing finally exhausted itself handily into the trashcan. I then sprayed the hell out of it with Raid, covered it with several empty food boxes we had just taken out of the freezer, and threw it outside.

I was reminded of a wonderful episode in X-Files that dealt with the irrational fear of bugs and a nice little exchange between Mulder and Scully:

Mulder: "Scully, can I confess something to you?"
Scully: "Yeah, sure, okay..."
Mulder: "I hate insects."
Scully: "You know lots of people are afraid of insects, Mulder. It's a natural instinctive —"
Mulder: "No, no, no. I'm not afraid of them. I hate them. One day, back when I was a kid, I was climbing this tree when I noticed this leaf walking towards me. It took forever for me to realise that it was no leaf."
Scully: "A praying mantis?"
Mulder: "Yeah, I had a praying mantis epiphany and as a result, I screamed. And not... not a girlie scream, but the scream of someone being confronted by some before unknown monster that had no right existing on the same planet I inhabited. Did you ever notice how a praying mantis' head resembles an alien's head? The mysteries of the natural world were revealed to me that day but instead of being astounded I was repulsed."
Scully: "Mulder, are you sure it wasn't a girlie scream?