Feb 16th - Day 47.

Today I thought that the collection of leaves in the pool had been there long enough and it was time to tip it all out.  After picking out a collection of toys I found this.......

 

It is a fully grown and dead male Tree Weta.  These insects are in huge numbers around our area and I am often fishing them alive and dead out of the cats water bowl and buckets etc.  They hiss and loudly and honestly I DO NOT LIKE THEM!!!!  No Sam-I-Am I do not like them here or there!  But in the interests of nuturing a healthy active male child I am brave and collected it in a sieve (I am NOT touching it - ICK!) and bottled it in a jar we had in the pantry for pickle (the jar is a large watties baby food jar filled with 50:50 water:white vinegar) so it can be taken to "school"/daycare tomorrow morning.  This specimen's body is about 4-5cm long.