Bugged Out
If I hadn't found a way to coexist with crickets, I would have gone insane long ago. (Hence the "crickets" part of my blog title.) The whole time we have lived in our house we have had a numerous group of crickets living here with us, even through the winter. By putting out sticky traps, we had limited the numbers a bit, and I had high hopes maybe we would get the best of them at last.
Hah.
This summer has been the plague of crickets. Yuck. They seem to be everywhere, no matter what we do. It's gotten to the point where I wear my Ipod to bed sometimes just to block out the noise. Still, like I said, I can coexist with crickets, so I didn't like it, but it wasn't the end of the world. However, in the last few weeks the bug thing has gotten beyond reason. I've seen a couple of large water bugs in the house, we've had an ant invasion or two in the kitchen, weevils got in the flour and oatmeal, black widows are standing sentinel at night in the backyard, and mosquitoes are just waiting to suck our blood if we stray outside. In response to my pleas Terence went all around the house and yard spraying insecticide again.
Then yesterday I walked into the dog yard and was met by this:
It's an Arizona bark scorpion, and the one I nearly walked onto was about three inches long. I literally jumped backward about a foot, screaming in terror. (OK, it was more like strangled yelping. All I could force out of my mouth when I was that horrified.) I rushed into the house and shook Terence awake to spout about the giant scorpion living in our side yard, my voice and hands still shaking. Luckily for me, Terence calmly tracked the thing down and killed it.
Then, this morning on my bike ride, I nearly ran over one of these:
Hah.
This summer has been the plague of crickets. Yuck. They seem to be everywhere, no matter what we do. It's gotten to the point where I wear my Ipod to bed sometimes just to block out the noise. Still, like I said, I can coexist with crickets, so I didn't like it, but it wasn't the end of the world. However, in the last few weeks the bug thing has gotten beyond reason. I've seen a couple of large water bugs in the house, we've had an ant invasion or two in the kitchen, weevils got in the flour and oatmeal, black widows are standing sentinel at night in the backyard, and mosquitoes are just waiting to suck our blood if we stray outside. In response to my pleas Terence went all around the house and yard spraying insecticide again.
Then yesterday I walked into the dog yard and was met by this:
It's an Arizona bark scorpion, and the one I nearly walked onto was about three inches long. I literally jumped backward about a foot, screaming in terror. (OK, it was more like strangled yelping. All I could force out of my mouth when I was that horrified.) I rushed into the house and shook Terence awake to spout about the giant scorpion living in our side yard, my voice and hands still shaking. Luckily for me, Terence calmly tracked the thing down and killed it.
Then, this morning on my bike ride, I nearly ran over one of these:
Yes, that's a rattlesnake.
If there was any possible way in the world, I would move from this land of terrifying creatures. Since it's not, I am seriously considering going without food if it means we can pay for pest control.
If you are curious about these poisonous fiends, check out http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/az1223/ and http://www.rattlesnakesfacts.com . Just in case you wanted to know more.
Comments
Especially as you are only a couple houses down from me!!!!!!!
Alex keeps telling me the dog's peeing in the yard scares the rattlesnakes away though ~ I'm not so sure though....
Ug! There has been a lot of bugs recently though, I just had home team come spray again... although I don't know how anything can stay alive outside right now in this heat!