Photo: Peter Weisinger

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Rapido.

Today's Bug of the Week comes from Peter Weisinger, senior geoscientist with Westrek Geotechnical Services in Salmon Arm.

The camel cricket hitched a ride on Weisinger's truck, so he kept him.

“I named him Rapido, he now lives in my garden. I say him, but it’s probably a female,” Weisinger said in an email.

An internet search shows there are more than 100 types of camel crickets in Canada and the United States.

Crickets poses no threat to people from bites or stings.

Camel crickets can be found in damp, dark areas such as caves, piles of wood, rotten logs and other such hiding spots.

Because of their fondness for dark places, they are also known as cave crickets and are a relative of the more common field cricket, which can be heard chirping away on warm summer nights.

Camel crickets can grow as large as five centimetres (two inches) in length and have a distinct hump on their backs, hence the name.

Occasionally, they prove to be a nuisance in the basements of homes in suburban areas, drains, sewers and wells.

Have you had a close encounter of the insect kind? Send us a picture at [email protected] and we may feature it as our Bug of the Week.