CREEPY CRAWLIES

Almost all of Arizona wildlife of necessity has an extremely defensive attitude.


Plants here are prickly, pointed or poisonous.


Insects routinely are festooned with armament and weapons


Survival in this harsh environment is difficult enough, so you have to defend yourself.


The mesquite tree pokes with harsh barbs - the scorpion stings - the rattlesnake bites - the cactus plants stab.


One of the less enduring characters is the centipede.

It has the squirmy movements of a snake that bother us - it has hundreds of legs which creep us out - and it's poisonous to boot.

 They live in dark, wet spots when possible - so I was fully aware that I might unearth one or two when I moved the watering trough to clean last night.

So I saw one slithering away.

Then I FELT ONE crawling up my right leg.

Wish I had been able to film it - it must have been quite a dance - but I did manage to shake it out after taking one boot off and shaking my leg like a crazy person.

Gosh.

Never, EVER want to repeat that experience.

.