Dinglehoppers...

AKA...spider crickets or cave crickets.

It all started Thursday morning. I went down stairs and this HUGE spider cricket like creature was staring at me. Of course I freaked out, I just ran down there to get some cloths before I got Ry up for the morning. But I remained cool and collective. On the table downstairs was a cup. So I slid across the wall to the table and grabbed the cup. I walked very...very slow over to the dinglehopper. I creeped down to it, bent over and hardly moving at all I reached and put the cup over him .... JUMP.... SCREAM... JUMP.... SCREAM... JUMP.... SCREAM.... SCREAM... JUMP... JUMP... JUMP.... SCREEEEAAAMMM!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, my heart was beating out of my chest. The job was still not done... I still had to capture this horrible horrible creature.

So I dared to do it again... I think I was screaming the entire time, but I achieved my goal. He was covered. Whoohoo, I just saved our house from this thing. I got my cloths together and ran up stairs as fast as I could. Once I made it up stairs poor Ry was screaming and crying. Poor baby can you imagine what he thought was happening to his poor mommy. I went in there and got him and our day went on.

It is now Friday morning. I didn't think about a thing and just headed down stairs. And what do ya know, there is its little friend right next to the cup staring in at him. Total freak out mode again. So I ran upstairs and grabbed another cup.

I did the same thing, I creeped up on him, and he jumped like crazy too. And I'm not talkin' hop hop, I am talking JUUUMMMP JUUUMMMP. I did scream but not like I did before, I expected it a little more. Well he jumped into a corner, well you can't try to kill or catch something in a corner, you just aren't going to win that battle.

So I grabbed a pen lid and threw it at it. I hit him dead on, but now I think I pushed him into the corner of the wall further leading to behind the wall. So now what do I do...I grabbed something larger. I found an old chapstick. Well I threw it, hit it dead on again, but this time I chipped a piece of the wall off and can't find the thing. Now I am totally freaking out. Well he finally appeared. He was a little slower this time, I think he might have had some injuries from our battle in the corner. I get him trapped with a cup and run up stairs.

I now have 2 pink see thru cups in the middle of the basement holding digglehoppers.

The day goes on, the digglehopper are forgotten about once again.

While at my parents house for dinner Friday night, I tell the story of the digglehoppers. This is also the first time Matt has heard since once again I forgot to tell him a story. Matt proceeds to tell me he saw one a couple of days ago jump off his backpack and it scared the crap out of him. My first response is, he must have brought them in with him. Not till later did I realize he did not jeopardize his life to save his family and go after this thing to kill or catch it like I did.

So we get home put Ry to bed and head downstairs to see what we could find. I found one on the carpet. This time I stayed put and had Matt go up stairs to get another cup. This time he was putting the cup on it. Well big mistake by me. He just lunges for the thing, no creeping involved. So ofcourse the thing jumps off and is never found again.

So we headed to the corner where the earlier battle took place and there was a baby one. I moved a weight that was sitting there and as it rolled it rolled over the thing and killed it. So that was taken care of.

We searched the whole basement, we found the grand daddy of all dinglehoppers in the corner of the pool room. This one was on the wall behind the table. I found a box, we SLOWLY moved the table out of the way, we planned out our action of attack. He got him, he smooshed the heck out of him. 2 down, 1 lost, and 2 POC (prisoner of cup).

That is all we have found so far. Hopefully the others, if any others have been watching from afar and got scared of the way we handle unwanted intruders.

Today I was at lunch with some wonderful friends and one had told me stories of how a friend of hers had these and to go online to find out how to kill them.

Matt is right, quit looking for more info on them and because I won't want to live in this house anymore. Well its not that bad yet, I just don't want to go downstairs anymore.

Well I read website after website, even watched a couple of videos on youtube about these things. And in some very serious articles they all seem to agree. They can't bite or sting you. They are just very scary looking and will scare you really bad. The adults bodies are about 1 1/2 inches long. They are not spiders, they just get that name from the way their legs look. They like to hide in damp cool places. If they can't find anything to eat, they will eat linens like moths. Due to their vision they jump towards you versus away, this is not a defense mechanisms, they actually think they are jumping away from you, they are very scared of us as well. You do not ignore them, they breed very fast.

Well, I am going to ignore them. I don't think there are more, at least not many more. I am hoping Matt killed grandpa, I killed baby, and mom and dad are POC, and the family is taken care of. The last one is hopefully grandma and is old and will die due to loss of her family. I will wait a couple of days. At least as long as it takes for the ones in the cup to die. Other than that if I do take the chemical road or do the traps, I will have to know their point of entry and where they live. And I have no idea on these two things. The worst part about it is, Ry and I play down there a lot. He has toys down there, a lot of them. So until I see no dinglehoppers for one full week, we will not be downstairs, unless I have laundry to do.

If anyone has any suggestions, please please please let me know. I want my house back!