Comments on: It’s a Bug’s Life…

By: passive.observer

passive.observer — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 02:57:02 +0000

Wasn’t the spider with green dots known as gagambang kuryente as opposed to the gagambang bahay?

By: Gillyweed

Gillyweed — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 00:02:23 +0000

You make me feel old MM and my age is still within the days of the calendar! :-) I remember watching my cousins play with spiders when I was a kid. Children living in the urban areas of our country probably won’t be doing that anymore but maybe those in the rural areas would still be amused by games like these.
The cricket shop reminded me of Disney’s Mulan. There was a scene there where Mulan’s grandmother gave her a cricket on her matchmaking day for good luck.

By: Dragon

Dragon — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 21:21:23 +0000

Of course it died MM, blame it on digital toys…

Why work hard catching the dang things, feed, observe for them to fight when you could just switch on and choose who to kill? Hahahaha!!!

Same generation but I wasn’t keen on anything with more than 4 legs!

By: Gej

Gej — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 12:51:47 +0000

Wasn’t it Don’t feed the spiders, to get them into hungry fighting form? One of my favorites from Grade school!

By: millet

millet — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 02:44:35 +0000

my kids grew up playing with “damang” (fighting spiders) and we’d see folks selling spiders crawling on sticks outside the school gates when we came to pick them up. my kids are adults now, and i haven’t heard of my younger nephews playing with damang. love the pretty cages, by the way.

By: ConnieC

ConnieC — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:10:12 +0000

Who says there’s nothing to do for pastime? But something I don’t think little girls would get interested in. Amusing! Really cool!

By: besYS

besYS — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 09:58:13 +0000

Fighting gagamba of our childhood! :-)
I like the ones from the corn field , with colorful yellowish body and legs – gagambang mais.
Yes, there’s ritual in preparing those gagamba before the big fight. We starve them, mas mabangis sa kalaban. hehe! ( feeding them before the fight, makes them antukin & slow to move) Creating a match as their home, it’s like a condominium. :-)

MM, you didn’t take pictures of those 2 crickets fighting? Sayang! :-)

By: Marketman

Marketman — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 04:31:10 +0000

joe jj, we are of the same generation. Kids today have no clue how much fun this was. But I had a soft spot for the light green spiders, they were stunning looking.

By: joe jj

joe jj — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 04:26:47 +0000

I really enjoyed the part on fighting spiders. It brought me back to my own childhood days. The best spiders are the ones caught in bayabas or narra. Those caught in sampalok or saging are inferior in my experience. The long legged ones, coupled with a slim body are the ones to look out for, the better to tackle the opponent or drop it to the ground by breaking the web it suspends itself on from the tingting. The short legged ones coupled with a stout body will most likely lose. They are the pagkain, after being wrapped in web. I don’t feed my spiders gagambang bahay because they become antukin. If I do not have gagambang totoo for food, I give them gagambang gato!

By: Ayen Qua

Ayen Qua — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 02:57:32 +0000

Before reading the whole entry, I though these crickets were for luck, just like in the movie Mulan!