Old and Young

Well, there is not much love out there for these guys. If you google them, you are presented with endless pages of results containing advice on how to rid yourself and your home of them. Even the Wildlife Trusts say "Infestations can cause serious damage." l

Wikipedia has a long list of things they eat (read 'damage'), including book bindings, carpet, clothing, coffee, dandruff, glue, hair, some paints, paper, photos, plaster, sugar, wallpaper paste, tapestries, cotton, dead insects, linen, silk, leftover crumbs. If they are really hungry, even leather and synthetic fabrics provide a meal. On the other hand, they can live for a year without eating at all, and can live for 7 or 8 years

I have lived my entire life in blissful ignorance of all this, and always seen them as just one of the many creatures we share our lives with. I'm going to assume that the odd one seen occasionally does not amount to 'an infestation' and they are welcome to leftover crumbs

They have an air of ancient secrets to them - they are nocturnal and scurry away from the light, moving surprisingly fast and with the fish-like wiggling motion that gives them their name. I can imagine some people being phobic about them, though I've never heard anyone mention it. Unlike ants, woodlice, cockroaches or spiders, they are very little talked about

Ancient they indeed are. They have been on earth for at least 350 million years, possibly much longer; the earliest times of the insect class. I find that awe-inspiring

Today we became grand-parents. As I write this, our grand-son has been (independently) on earth for 3 hours. Great rejoicing. I hope we can meet him tomorrow. How awe-inspiring will that be