Yes, we have newts. This is a result of having water in the basement, on a regular basis. Which is likely a result of living on a hill in an area known for its annual rainfall. So, as part of the ongoing battle against water in the basement, we lay down rags to form a dike, and also use the shop vac to suck up the overflow.
Which leads us back to the newts. See, the newts like to canoodle under the wet rags and make baby newts. So, when one picks up the sopping rags, one must shake out the stray newt before depositing said rags in the washing machine, or one may have a vertiginous newt. Or a dead newt. Likewise, the tiniest of the newts have difficulty getting away from the shop vac, so one must be careful to either collect or shoo away any of the little buggers who have not made it to the safety of Beneath the Washer & Dryer.
Of course, in the winter months relocation seems rather cruel. So we leave them be. But come spring, we'll be gathering them up and depositing them in appropriately swampy areas about the yard. This particular variety of newt actually lives in water in the summer and in the woods in the winter. Apparently, our particular tribe has chosen the fully aquatic, sunless lifestyle.
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5 comments:
I don't even know what a newt is!
Please discuss.
It's a salamander, for all intents and purposes. And adolescent ones are called "efts"--a handy Scrabble word!
You get my vote for both coolest and strangest blogpost du jour.
newts are cuter than salamanders.
people keep them in fishtanks with rocks poking out of the water. they're like fish for people who prefer puppies--they're relatively low maintenance, quite adorable, and can be plucked out of the water to play with: they'll crawl across your hands and/or the floor for as long as you let them (but you should dip them back into the water periodically to keep their skin from drying out). when you've had enough of newt-play, you simply hold them by the tail over the deep (i.e. rock-free) part of the fishtank and drop them back in, watching them flail and kick. this is called "newt-diving."
can you tell i speak from experience? our pet store in blacksburg had many, so they were all the rage where/when i was in college. :)
it's not that weird, becky!
--tyra
I *did* read that the oils in our skin can be toxic to them, so play should be kept to a minimum. But, ours are wild, so we don't play with them. We just try to do as little harm as possible.
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