The end of summer is fast approaching in Shaolin.  The pressure is on to catch the remaining bugs of the season!

My first strategy was to change the time of my Wii.  Perhaps I’d have better luck finding the Tarantula in the early morning, since I usually look at night.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything except an unfit mother.

Kaitlin was rambling on about how she must have been separated from her child in Herito’s town, Frost (probably while she was on a drunken bender).  Luckily, I was quickly able to get in touch with Herito and open my gates, despite my shaky internet connection.  I wonder what prize Katie will send him?  I’ll have to ask.  Herito wanted to show me a cool little trick he and some friends had figured out.

We got to talking about tarantulas and Herito began describing what he called the “Drastic Method” for catching creepy crawlies.  Basically, he explained that as you pass from acre to acre, the game spawns 25 bugs.  (I think the same rule applies with fish.)  He said that if you cut down all the trees and get rid of all the flowers in your town, you will increase your chances of catching a tarantula, scorpion or giant petaltail.  How, you might ask?  Well, if there are no trees then there are no beetles.  I’m talking regular trees AND palm trees.  The game looooves to respawn a million fruit beetles instead of bringing out a tarantula.  And by getting rid of flowers, there’s no chance of a butterfly spawning and taking up a spot either.  PLUS by having no trees or flowers in the way, it’s a lot easier to spot and chase a bug.

Herito tried to convince me that I should wait til the end of August, and give my town a chance.  But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try the Drastic Method.  I’ve been wanting to re-do my town’s foliage anyway.  Make some fruit groves.  Organize flowers in a better way.  Nook asked me today if I wanted to change the store – I chose Variety, so I’ll be able to plant more flowers in a week.  And of course, we all know that I’ve been having trouble catching creepy crawlies cuz I always lose sight of them.  So yesterday I whipped out my axe and just started chopping away.  Think of it as an Extreme Town Makeover!

Personally, I think the town looks really cool like this.  I feel like I just restarted the game.  At first, I didn’t really see anything of interest.  I circled the town a bunch of times.  Then I noticed that the number of moths in town had VASTLY increased since cutting down all the trees.  So I started chasing the moths to scare them away, to cause new bugs to be spawned.  Once I started doing that… I started noticing some creatures scuttling around on the ground!

I must have spotted 10 scorpion last night.  It was crazy!  I managed to catch half of them, which was even crazier!  I developed a technique where I would corral the scorpion either into the alcove by the two-level slope, or up by the gate where the bus stop is.  Then I would run up the ramp and take out my net.  I like this technique because it’s pretty safe – the scorpion can’t sting you while you’re up on a ramp.  The only problem is I can’t really get a great angle to catch it with my net, so that took a little practice.  But it obviously worked since I caught so many of them!

I wasn’t seeing any tarantulas.  Ok, I saw one at first but it got me.  Big surprise.  Then it was just scorpion after scorpion.  I was starting to wonder where all the big spiders were.  So I went around to my townies to try and change some catch-phrases.  Victoria wanted a new greeting, so I wrote “Oh tarantula”.  Not more than 5 minutes later, I spotted a tarantula!  I chased it to the gate and rushed up the bus stop ramp.  But I couldn’t see it at ALL.  My net swipes were futile.  So I took a baby step down the ramp in hopes of getting a glimpse.  Nothing.  Then another step down and – BAM!  The tarantula jumped at me and bit me.  😦

Looks like the ramp technique wasn’t going to work (necessarily) for the Tarantula.  So I decided I needed to use my “bee approach” instead.  When I was chopping down trees, I released all 5 swarms of bees, and had caught 3 of them.  My technique for the bees is to run away as soon as you see them, then take out your net and let them come to you.  For some reason, I can gauge when to swipe if I see the bug coming at me.  So I decided to use this technique for the tarantula.  Chase it to a place where it can’t kill itself by jumping in a river or something, step about 10 paces away, THEN take out the net.  Let the tarantula come to you.

When I saw the tarantula on the main slope near Squirt’s house, I chased it up the slope, to Brocollo’s house.  Then I walked away and took out the net.  It charged and BAM!  In my net!  I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture.  So I headed straight to the museum to gross out Blathers.

Yep, he was pretty grossed out.  But I wasn’t!  I was so proud to have finally caught that beast.  I went straight to the Insect Exhibit  to watch the new Tarantula duke it out with the Scorpion.

Now, all that’s left for me to catch in August is the Giant Petaltail.  I’ll be looking today between 5pm and 7pm for the massive flying monster.  I really hope I can catch it quick so I can start rebuilding my town.  Once the petaltail is caught, I’ll be accepting donations.  Any fruit (except apples!  NO APPLES!) and flowers would be happily accepted – plus planting a flower in Shaolin will unlock the town charm.  So that’s a bonus for anyone who wants to help rebuild Shaolin!

I would also like to just remind everyone that Squirt’s retirement is on the horizon.  He only needs to complete his fish and bug catalogues, finish collecting the clothes for his regular catalogue, collect the Spooky Set on Halloween and complete his Mush Set in November.  And of course, get a birthday cake on his ‘anniversary.’  But after all that, Squirt will be retiring.  Everything will be complete.  And it will finally be time for Squirt to take it easy and let the other characters run amok.

I’ll keep you all posted on Squirt’s retirement status.  Don’t worry, he’ll still be around for a few more months.  But that’ll be it!  So get your retirement gifts ready for November!