The Australian Outback On My Toilet Window

Jungle Law on My Window Pane

In a slight departure from the norm here on BobinOz, today’s post covers bodily excretions, sex, mutilation, death and bad language. So, let’s get started!

I want to share something with you about the smallest room in our house. Yes, I want to talk about my toilet.

At night, after Elizabeth has gone to bed, we always leave the toilet light on. That way, if she needs to do a wee (that’s bodily excretions covered) during the night, she doesn’t wake up to complete darkness.

This arrangement is fantastic news for the local Asian House Geckos. You do remember what these little chaps look like, don’t you?

Outside of our house, they hang around on this window pane waiting for the many scrumptious meals that turn up, obviously attracted by the light. They dine on midges, mozzies, flies, moths and whatever other insects come.

Except…..

The other night, when I ventured into that little special room for personal reasons, instead of seeing the shadows of two or three Asian House Geckos, which is pretty much always the case, I saw just one shadow. I didn’t need to be an entomologist to know what this was……

And not an Asian House Gecko in sight. I went outside to get a better picture of the new governor of our toilet window territory, who, incidentally also likes to eat midges, mozzies, flies, moths and whatever other insects come along.

Can the Asian House Gecko really be scared of this insect? The gecko would certainly weigh more than the mantis, but the latter (well this one anyway) definitely has a longer body. He was a beauty, probably about 10 cm long (4 inches).

Then I found this, on the knower of all things, Wikipedia.

‘Based upon empirical evidence, the Australian mantis has been known to strike fear amongst the native Australian gecko causing great avoidance tendencies as it marks its territory.’

So, apparently, yes! Seems this praying mantis may well have scared off the local geckos, Australian or Asian, during his visit.

I’m still fascinated by the praying mantis, as you will already know if you read my previous post called What is your favourite insect? But as I mentioned then, and repeat now, they do have an unusual character trait.

The female likes to bite the heads of their male partners whilst mating. (That’s sex, mutilation and death dealt with).

Meet The Angry Aussie

The Angry Aussie is, well I suspect you can guess. That’s right; he’s an Australian who is angry. He is also a prolific YouTube video maker, so much so that I think it’s his job. But despite many of his videos having a strong Australian connection, I’ve never posted one here on BobinOz.

Why?

Because when the Angry Aussie gets angry, he swears a lot (that’s the bad language bit out of the way) enough to make me and Mrs BobinOz blush. And maybe you too. So his stuff is not suitable on my G rated (U if you’re in England) family blog.

But in this video, save for one oft used colloquialism for fornication, there is not a bad word uttered. In this video he is surprisingly calm and, unlike as in any other video I’ve seen of his, in this one he doesn’t lose his head (there’s a clue).

So, over to the Angry Aussie and his excellent, yet short, nature documentary covering two mating praying mantises.

Isn’t nature wonderful?