Why is that that Parktown prawns (a misnomer I’ll come back to) elicit so intense a degree of revulsion? True, they are appalling ugly. In addition, their tendency to jump when startled — frequently straight at you — is, to say the least, disconcerting, and the smell of their excreta is indeed revolting. And when their backs are against the wall, they hiss. Still, they’re just crickets at the end of the day. Why is it that even grown men are reduced to the status of quivering four-year-olds by their unsolicited appearance?
So widespread is the disgust generated by PPs that the actor Andrew Buckland made it the subject of a brilliant one-man play about (amongst other things) xenophobia, called The Ugly Noo-Noo. Along with a number of past Madam & Eve cartoons, the piece repeats that popular bit of local folklore that PPs are almost impossible to kill. In my experience, killing them is not all that hard, but the resultant stink makes it highly inadvisable.
I noted above that Parktown prawn is a misnomer. In fact, the original name was Parkmore prawn, after a suburb in Sandton. Because Parktown is so much better known than Parkmore, that name came to be substituted, but that was definitely not the original name. I can confirm this both through a Sunday Times press cutting from 1980 that I came across and because I myself once lived in Parkmore and can assure you that the place was swarming with the buggers. It was ill-advised to walk at night without shoes, even inside the house.
An anecdote: I am getting up for school one morning. I push my right foot into my shoe. What’s this lump by my toes? I take the shoe off, shove my hand down to the end and an instant later am lurching back appalled, trying ineffectually to brush away a giant PP that is now clinging to the front of my jersey. (I am not exaggerating when I say that even the time when I disturbed a rinkhals with a metal detector did not generate the same degree of visceral horror I felt at that moment).
A couple of years ago, I saw a Star billboard with the legend, “Where have all the Parktown prawns gone?” or something to that effect. Well, so far as I can see, they’re still with us. In rainy weather, they emerge quite frequently around my Fairmount home. Even then, though, they are not nearly as numerous as they were in Parkmore.
If there are any current Parkmore residents reading this, I’d be interested to learn whether the suburb is still Prawn City. Also a point of interest — are these creatures unique to South Africa? I read somewhere that they mutated in the Eastern Cape and somehow found their way up to Jo’burg. Maybe there is someone out there who can go beyond the urban myth and tell us.
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32 Responses to “Crickets from hell — encounters with Parktown prawns”
Do not dare to accuse East Cape for originating these goggas. I lived most of my life in that province and never saw any.
Cockroaches there do fly and you have no place to hide.
All self-respecting humans down under use Cockroach Bait which ensures their departure.
Try it for your PP’s. They will go to your neighbours - aka poetic justice for noisy dogs or any misdemeanor you can recall.
Good luck.
Caught a couple in Melville already this year. I’m also interested to know where they come from, how do they get into the house? And where do they hide all the baby prawns?
As far as I know they are deep forest crickets, hence their size, which migrated to JHB in compost from the lowveld.
Not sure if that is correct but maybe an expert can set me straight.
What I do know though is that they are predators and brilliant gardening helpers. Since my puppy has eaten my entire population I’ve now got snails coming out of my ears!!
I miss the parkies even though its the only insect I’m scared of! What an irony!
I hear that they are from Madagascar and came over to the Northern suburbs via cartons of bananas. They thrived as a result of the abundance of well watered gardens in Joburg. But then Hadedas came on to the scene in bigger numbers around 1995.They have a great liking for the Parktown Prawn. I used to shoot Parktown Prawns with my BSA air rifle, the rest of my family taking cover behind me. The best method to take care of them if you don’t want them excreting the smelly stuff. I know live in Cape Town and do not miss the hiss in the night.
To be honest, I always thought they were an introduced species, but according to Wiki (yes there actually is a wiki entry for Parktown prawns!) they’re actually from the Barberton area.
I had some awful interactions with them as a teenager when I lived in a dark & damp cottage in my parents back garden in Melville! They do seem to be on the decline in Melville though…
I’m not scared of Parktown Prawns. I won’t handle them, but I find them interesting to look at.
Maybe that’s because I played the AWB character in a school production of The Ugly Noo-Noo once - I think I managed to start a rumour that I was a lesbian (because I had to deepen my voice and put on a thick Afrikaans accent). Good memories.
They are called King Crickets and prefer areas where there is a lot of cover and moisture. Just like the birds that have migrated into Johannesburg due to the forestation of the area so too have the King Crickets. I do agree that the increase in Hadeda’s have seen a reduction in the amount of King Crickets. Perhaps we would all like them better if they were KFC’s ‘ and not KC’s?
An entomologist friend of mine who was doing research on them told me that they can bite through the rubber sleeves on his tweezers. These creatures don’t seem to eat snails so I wonder if they have any purpose? In Namibia they are yellow with black stripes. The only good KC is a dead KC. Peter Joffe
We’ll i heard they where the product of break out, in the Wits biology lab, based on some crazy experiamnet gone horribly wrong.Which is a much more exiting tale, But alas I think that may have been an urban myth cultivated by wits students for a bit of fun. What do biologist do on dull days at the office, one wonders.
They scare the crap out of me but i am grateful to have them becuase they supply the bird population and also keep the snails at bay (as per Zoo Keepers comment)i never kill them but have a son brave (or is it stupid?) enough to take them back outside.
Hakuna Matata - Please tell me what kind of puppy you have. Our cat brings them in nightly to play with, but has so far refrained from consuming them. I generally toss a bowl over them and leave them for my 11 yr old daughter to get rid of in the morning…. Its her cat!
Were in Victory Park btw, so the buggers travel!
When we left Jhb in 2000, the PP migration to the East Rand was unbelievable! One rainy weekend, my son and I sat watching them march into the house in battalions, through the doggy door. We used to cover them with glass (heavy enough) bowls and leave them until our once-a-week char arrived to clear and kill them. She was not the slightest bit peturbed, even though it fell to her to wash all those bowls afterwards.
God bless Monica; we still miss her dreadfully.
Flying cockroaches are nowhere near as bad as PPs, although I make quite a fuss over them, too!
They do eat snails, slugs and anything smaller than them that crosses their paths. Mean set of jaws. I remember poking a stick at one as a little kid and having it bitten in half!
There is an uglier cousin of the parkie with even bigger jaws, not sure what the purpose of those is because they look unwieldy
Remember a girlfriend levitating across a lounge once back in 1986 while living in Bryanston. Best removal method was grabbing the buggers with a handful of loo paper and flushing them back to Madagascar. Average battle between us was four flushes.
I only recently moved to JHB and have seen one or two dead PP in swimming pools.
I dread the day I run into a live one if these recounts are to be believed. I am absolutely petrified of flying cockroaches having come from Natal…to me cockroaches are still the dirtiest, most vile creatures around…may I never have to change my opinion…
David, mazel tov! You have inspired responses that are amusing and totally lacking in racist rant, though I suppose you and your respondents could (with me in silent support) be accused of species abuse. Thank you.
Must agree but the old Durban flying cockroach takes some beating. Especially when you are sitting naked to the waist on a hot evening in Feb with sweat running down your forehead and one flies into you.Thank goodness I relocated to the Midlands. But we have great spiders here in Howick
I understand that they occurred in Barberton before Jhb. The Namibian cousins, by the way, are koringkrieke. They make PPs look tame. A koringkriek is known to be able to eat a flip flop, so urban legends in Windhoek claim.
So we’re thinking of opening an “Old Johannesburg” styled (think converted home, pressed ceilings, gas stoves, colonial decor) seafood restaurant in trendy Parktown North, you guessed it “The Parktown Prawn”. Call me if you’re interested in the franchise, we’re talking PP’s nationwide!
I suppose I am a bit of a Greenie… I live in Craighall, and have regular encounters with the beasts. I am cautiously elated during each encounter, and sad to find one in the pool. They remind me that there is still something left of our ecosystem.
Living in Sandhurst at the time (next to Parkmore), and just getting out of bed, I dropped off the bed, put on my slippers, walked 2 steps, and realised there was something in my slipper.
Yep, I had put my foot ONTO one, and squished it between the ball of my foot and my toes with the first step. I just got the “grils” thinking about it.
Al - thanks for informing me where the term ‘korinkriek’ comes from. That’s what my parents called them. It’s a very bland name for
so noxious a creature, although better than the appallingly misleading ‘King Cricket’
David: I live out in Buccleuch and find them frequently in the swimming pool. I’ve also found one inside my shoe one morning — fortunately I was wearing socks.
Some years ago, I proposed that “Proteas” was a namby-pamby name for our national cricket team and that we should simply call our team The King Crickets affectionately known as the Parktown Prawns. Think about it — they’re nimble, they’re quick, they’re scary, they will look great on tee shirts and bumper stickers…
Many years ago, I lived in a garden cottage in Parkview. Shortly after work one spring afternoon I arrived home from work, phoned my girlfriend (now my wife) and whilst I was on the phone, grabbed a pair of shorts that I had left on the floor. Once I pulled them up, I realised that there was more than just me in the shorts. The scream would have done a teenage movie star proud as I hopped around trying to get rid of the shorts without losing track of the parkie.
Almost as bad as waking up in the middle of the night with them on my pillow. Urban legend has it that we eat about eight spiders in our sleep during our lives - I nearly did the same with a Parkie.
Doesn’t New Zealand have a much bigger type of King Cricket? Saw it on National Geographic once and almost fainted. The thing was like 20cm in length!!!
Thanks for a bone chilling blog.
Korinkriek, Once when I was in Namibia I was approached by a huge yellow and black Korinkriek. I was busy shovelling coals into the braai fire. I chopped the cricket in half with the spade upon which the front part of the beast turned around and started to eat the back half. Self cannibalism was something I had never thought of before but here it was. Sadly I did not photograph it for the scientists to comment on.
About snails though, we still have plenty of snails in the garden so that is why I think that PP’s prefer themselves to snails?? I don’t know if Hadedas eat snails??
One evening when I was out on a business visit, I received a desperate cry for help from my wife via cell phone. There was a prawn in the passage and she could not get from the bedroom into the kitchen. I was to come home immediately and save her. I agreed and two and a half hours later I arrived back at home to find her sitting on a stool, with her feet up in the air, waiting to be rescued whilst the prawn was sitting quietly in a corner. I figured that the prawn would just wonder off so I did not rush home. Have never been forgiven.
This is turning into an interesting topic. Perhaps we should get 702 to have a session on PP’s?
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David Saks has worked for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) since April 1997, and is currently its associate director. Over the years, he has written extensively on aspects of South African history, Judaism and the Middle East for local and international newspapers and journals.
David has an MA in history from Rhodes University. Prior to joining the SAJBD, he was curator -- history at MuseumAfrica in Johannesburg. He is editor of the journal Jewish Affairs, appears regularly on local radio discussing Jewish and Middle East subjects and is a contributor to various Jewish publications.
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Do not dare to accuse East Cape for originating these goggas. I lived most of my life in that province and never saw any.
Cockroaches there do fly and you have no place to hide.
All self-respecting humans down under use Cockroach Bait which ensures their departure.
Try it for your PP’s. They will go to your neighbours - aka poetic justice for noisy dogs or any misdemeanor you can recall.
Good luck.
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