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March 23, 2015

A Weta House in a Rimu Tree

We visited relations during the weekend, and one of them keeps a weta house in their garden. She says it’s so the wetas don’t jump out at her while she’s in the garden.

Rimu tree

This is a native rimu tree and where the wetas live. The rimu tree is very cool. You can’t tell from this picture but the leaves are actually long green strands, sort of like coarse hair.

Weta House

This is the weta house, perched in the branches of the rimu tree. Hubby took it out of the tree and opened it for me to see the wetas inside.

Weta House Open

You can see the wetas inside. When hubby opened the house, one fell out. We picked it up on a stick, took photos and then returned it to the house.

Weta

And this is a close up of a weta. They’re very cool and quite big. The weta is native to New Zealand.

What do you think – cool or totally gross?

3 Comments

  1. Maria Zannini

    They look like grasshoppers, sworn enemies to gardeners in the Southern states because they’re so pervasive.

    It’s cool that people build houses for wetas but I’m not sure I’d go that far.

    Insects are not my idea of pets. :)

    • Shelley Munro

      They’re much bigger than your grasshoppers, and they’re not pests in the same way. They can bite but only if cornered. i.e. you don’t want one in your gumboot! They’re a New Zealand treasure and are considered prehistoric. They live on vegetable matter, but they don’t swarm like your grasshoppers, which I have to say are horrid. We struck some while we were driving through Nevada, I think it was.

  2. Mary Kirkland

    Wow, I googled that just to find out more about it. Unlike our grasshoppers, Weta’s can bite it said. They reminded me a little of the big potato bugs that my brother used t scare me with when we were kids. You want to see a truly horrid looking insect..google potato bug. lol I don’t mind grasshoppers and crickets after seeing Weta’s and potato bugs. lol