Love Bugs

Have you seen the love bugs? No, this isn't a small buggy-looking car. I am talking about the pesky Florida love bugs. They haven't always been here, but they are found in Florida, Georgia, parts of South Carolina and Mexico and Central America. They show themselves two times a year; during April-May and August-September.

They are usually very thick in groups and fly with no destination and end up landing on you and everything else. They can do damage to a car if the car is not waxed and the bugs are not removed quickly. They can leave a fatty, smeary mess on the windshields.

So, why are the called love bugs? Well, as you can see in this picture, they (two of them) fly around attached as they are mating. So, you are not only being hit by one bug, but two bugs. Looking forward to the end of this first season.

Got 'em

Don't need to say much today. Yes, I thoroughly cleaned out the pantry. Woke up several times during the night hoping the ants had left. Come morning, no such luck. Must have been a new breed. Not having a hard frost down here, the critters build an immunity and I don't like it..

So, went to church early to compose myself and came home, emptied everything out, clean every can, jar, etc., and then bombed the h---- out of the pantry. Ah yes, after a disinfecting wash and reinstalling all the goodies, I am back to normal. Keeping windows and doors open this time of year tends to let just about everything in.

We lived on the east coast of Florida for 5 years right after retirement. We had triple sliding doors to the screened pool area and I was always chasing geckos out with a handy broom left by the door. For some reason, they didn't seem so invasive.

Nevertheless, we are back to normal and now that a horrific thunderstorm is passing through, I am just going to settle down and do some knitting. Sounds good to me!!

Critters

I have adjusted to the fact that living in a tropical climate where there is never a hard frost, brings with it another problem. Critters. Anything that crawls or flies where it is not supposed to be, to me is a critter.

Today, as the smell of a slowly braising pork roast is wafting through the house, critters are the last thing on my mind. Then, I open my pantry and WOW! Critters. Once a year it seems, ants get into my pantry. I have learned to put certain foods into glass jars, sealed plastic jars and bins, etc., but every once in a while, I slip with something and today they caught me.

I end up flying around the house with hair standing on end and there is nothing I hate worse than uninvited guests in my pantry or even my house. Did you hear the German words flying out of my mouth? It is not that I am swearing, I am just using every German word I can think of at the moment to console myself that "this too shall pass." At last look, the Terro seems to be working quickly. I think I got on top of it before it got out of control. Aw--Florida!!

But then, there are other critters I can relate to in the not so distant past. The last couple of years when we were renting another cabin in Montana, we had a BAT problem. Now that is one critter that gets no respect from me at all. One night, The Trout and I were battling several bats with a broom and I was the lucky one with only a baseball cap in one hand and an ax in the other. My heart was beating so fast I thought I might pass out, but that was certainly not something I needed to do in such dire circumstances. I needed to be alert and make sure I get my fair share of kill. These bats were sickly looking to both of us. At the end of the evening, we had killed six and by 9 p.m., we were packed up and heading to another cabin. Some people think that bats eat mosquitoes and many, we found out later, are protected because of being endangered, but please forgive me if I did something wrong. Bats flying at you in a small cabin, with many more bats flying around outside, is not the time I think about any critter being endangered. I think I got a few more gray hair that evening.