“I just chucked them down there,” says Daniel Emlyn-Jones, a 40-year-old plant scientist, pointing to a bush near the fence of his narrow garden in a fairly typical Oxford street. Two weeks ago he ordered 500 crickets from an online reptile centre, hoping to bring some sweet music to his extraordinary tropical garden, and also to fill the gap that has been left in his life by his now deceased pet tarantula. It has worked. Close your eyes and listen and you can see a fireball sun drop beneath the African savannah. Or if not that, at least the shimmering surface of some terrible Greek hotel swimming pool in those enchanted hours immediately after darkness, and hopefully before anyone’s thrown up.”

Source: The Independent

To read the full article, click HERE.

NWCU Comment:

This release of non native species was investigated by Thames Valley Police. The man who released the crickets, gave the below comment on 16th August:

“I wrote a letter on 26/7/13 recommending the garden release of the African field Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. It is widely available in the UK as a reptile food, has a pleasant song, and I thought it would add exoticism to my garden. This idea was also the subject of a light-hearted article published in The Independent on 3/8/13.

Last Thursday I received a phone call from the police informing me that by introducing into my garden a species of cricket not native to the UK , I’d broken the law (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 section 14(1)), and today I was interviewed by a policeman. He was very friendly and pleasant (he wanted to educate more than anything else), but I did receive an Adult Restorative Disposal (ARD).

May I now warn the public against releasing any non-native animal species into our environment, and apologise for any confusion I may have caused. British ecosystems are ancient, precious, and fragile, and the consequences of such actions can be potentially devastating.”