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The common Clark child and the rare Pink Katydid.

It’s not every day that you find rare bugs in your yard, but then, sometimes weird stuff happens when you send your 10 year old out to whack weeds by the barn. I was busy trying to put the kids’ rooms back together after a 6 week long rehab project, so I asked Max to do one of my chores – whack the weeds in front of the old barn. While disappointed he didn’t get to use the “Whirlygig of Spinning Death” gas weed whacker, it turns out that it was a good thing he was using the old fashioned hand powered one.

He came tearing back into the house hollering that he saw a “big pink grasshopper or something”. I told him to get the bug collector  and be gentle! While he and his sister were out doing bug rodeo, I checked out Google. For what it’s worth, searching on “big pink bug” was a bust, but I took a guess and tried, “pink katydid”. Whatdya know? They exist. They’re rare . And they are found in our area. Interestingly, one was also found recently near my old hometown of Mansfield, Ohio. “At first, I thought it was a small flower,” Max said breathlessly. Nope. We can get those at the store. Pink katydids? Well, those aren’t for sale.

You can find better photos elsewhere, but here’s one my kids took:

Kudos to Max for spotting this rare pink katydid!

Wow. Just wow. I have uncommon cattle and heritage breed chickens, but a pink katydid is extremely rare. We all gawked at it. The kids walked it over to the neighbors to show everyone (third party proof!) and then we let it go across the street, well away from our hungry chickens.

Kudos to my kids for not suggesting that we keep it and also handling it gently enough that we could let it go again in good health. They understood immediately just how special this little insect was. I couldn’t ask for anything better than that!