Look who moved in to my workshop

[Sambabus]

I have no problem killing parktown prawns,...apart from actually killing them that is.

[Ron&Gill]

What's a Parktown Prawn? A sizeable cockroach or something?

[Dam]

I do'nt know if it works, but they say wild garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) keeps the creepy stuff away! I planted it around my garages and have'nt seen a snake there since, maybe I'm just lucky.

[fig]

I have no problem killing parktown prawns,...apart from actually killing them that is.

LOL!!!

Me too! They're pretty indestructible: they eat Doom; they're too messy/crunchy/juicy to stomp; and they leap towards any attacker.

mrsfig feels the same way about them as Ron feels about snakes, so I have to deal with them when they come into the house. I stalk them with a wad of bogroll, quickly wrap them in it and flush them down the toilet. Works pretty well. Sorry for the guys who clean the solid waste filters at the sewage works.

A question: how is it that you never see any parktown prawn other than the super-monster-sized ones? Are they ever babies? I suspect they are bred in another dimension and are beamed down here once fully grown to terrorise us.

My learned buddy from UJ tells me they were introduced to Jhb by some busybody biologist who studied Jo'burg's man-made forest ecosystem and decided it needed a carnivorous insect, so he imported a few breeding pairs from the forests of Mamparalanga and the rest, as they say, is history.

He's lucky most people don't know who he is!

[fig]

What's a Parktown Prawn? A sizeable cockroach or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn

[smeegle]

ugly aren't they

[Ron&Gill]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I see!

Like a pre-cast concrete cockroach that only gets a slight hayfever from nuclear grade DDT and jumps AT you when told to fcuk-off... KEWL.

District 9, hehe...

[GavinHuart]

My brother once had to do a science project for primary school involving a study of insects of choice. He chose to pin all sorts of horrid things to a board with their names and a brief description neatly written under each one. Bravely he saddled up a Park-Town Prawn and managed to exhaust it in the garden green-house. Then, while cornered he harpooned it with one of mother's glass-top sewing pins and proceeded to attach it to the board where it's neatly written tomb stone awaited. For at least a week that thing still moved its legs when anyone got close to it. I'm convinced its still alive plotting its vengeance in the bowels of Constantia Kloof Primary school!

I've seen baby ones. We had to move a sand pile for my dad when he commenced building the Family Room. The little one's are even more horrid as they can leap twice as far!

A big one leapt into my mom's hair one evening from a top shelf in her bedroom cupboard. Maria Callas would have wished she'd had that vocal range!!

... the stories can go on... (Hint, stay away from the West Rand!!)

[mrsfig]

Ok, now I'm freaking out!!!! Eeeeeeeek! I hate them! Give me 10 snakes rather than one of those ugly, horrible, alien creatures...

[Piet Jacobs]

Parktown Prawn - we've got 4 Siamese cats and their favourite nocturnal activity is to hunt for anything that creeps and crawls and bring them home. Problem is they often loose them somewere in the house!

[bugspray]

this is the mostest awesome thread ever, never have I shrieked and laughed at the same time hahahaha. Awesome stories guys. Gav, you're a grade A tjop! Hahahahaha.

[GavinHuart]

Parktown Prawn - we've got 4 Siamese cats and their favourite nocturnal activity is to hunt for anything that creeps and crawls and bring them home. Problem is they often loose them somewere in the house!

HAH! See!! Piet stays pretty close to where I do and they're on our side IN ABUNDANCE! A colleague of mine here at the office lives near Randburg. Apparently their cat likes to catch Prawns and bring them to you as a gift! The story was regaled of how once one the size of a small pony was placed ever so precisely on his girlfriends chest by young Bucket The Cat while she was asleep!! Imagine! If it's not bad enough these satanic creatures have figured out how to pick locks and get into your house ANYWHERE, now the cat helps them along! SPCA is all I can say!

[Dam]

Ron&gill being from Rotterdam made me think. A couple of years ago we were in Holland and visited the fishing town of Urk. At an eatery in the harbour we saw eel (paling?) and said to each other, That's a challenge!. I had mine, and must say it wasn't that bad, just the thought and the looks. I hate snakes and eel looks alot like snake to me
The local beer did help though

[fig]

The story was regaled of how once one the size of a small pony was placed ever so precisely on his girlfriends chest by young Bucket The Cat while she was asleep!!

That's enough to make one kick the bucket.

[mrsfig]

Parktown Prawn - we've got 4 Siamese cats and their favourite nocturnal activity is to hunt for anything that creeps and crawls and bring them home. Problem is they often loose them somewere in the house!

Our 2 cats run away when they see a Parktown Prawn!