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 Bugs
Bugs
have gone from being minor annoyances, to things of fascination.
Where once I would have gladly stepped on any number of insects,
now I look out for the little critters.
I have
gone from being a girly-girl with nails done, makeup and hair
styled, to being the mother of two boys. Together my three year
old and I lay tummy down in the lawn, charting the progress of
carpenter ants and following leafhoppers through the gardens.
The other evening we pulled into the garage and accidentally ran
over the leg of a pincer beetle. It was the biggest beetle I've
ever seen in person, about three inches long and .75 of an inch
wide, my son was fascinated. My husband wanted to put it out of
its misery, but knowing how that would affect my boy, I
suggested they catch it and let it go in the woods behind our
house.
Alex
loves ladybugs, ants, rolly-pollys, and of course lightning
bugs, but his current favorite is June bugs. I have to admit to
being very amused at watching these foolish oversize klutzes
slam themselves into any available obstacle. "Why do they
do that Mommy? Doesn't it hurt?" Apparently it doesn't,
since they seem to be able to slam themselves innumerable times
before finally taking a hint and flying in another direction.
Just like some neighbors I know.
 As
irritating and itchy these little critters can be, they are
equally as fascinating. We watched with interest as a Japanese
beetle made it's way from my rose bush to the beetle trap we
have set up in the yard. The fact that he took a good portion of
rose leaf with him in his miniscule belly was a small price to
pay for the joy my son got in trying to figure out how and why
the beetle found his way from the bush to the trap. I need to
move those roses anyway. I haven't had a single flower out of
them all year. Let's face it; rosebushes without roses are just
annoying thorn bushes with aphids.
Of
great interest in our house was the Brown Recluse spider we
caught scuttling across the rug the other night. Also known as a
"Fiddleback," it is notorious for biting people and
the poison eats away at their skin. It was cool looking at him
in the jar. Alex and I got a really good look at what I would
call fangs. Of course, while my husband caught it, Alex, Ian and
I waited upstairs. In addition to biting, those spiders jump.
We also
had a Praying Mantis in the front yard. My cat found him. Alex,
Scott, and I watched as the cat proceeded to bat his paw at the
insect. The Mantis must have taken offense to this playful move,
because before you know it, the Mantis had his long front legs
up and, with Ninja like reflexes, was jabbing back at my cat. My
cat runs
about thirty pounds and is roughly the size of a small panther.
The Praying Mantis held his own, and for weeks Alex was putting
his arms up beside his head, elbows bent, and showing anyone who
would watch, how the Praying Mantis whooped up on the cat.
 My
neighbor thinks I need a new pest control service. I have a
woman who comes and gets the ants out of my bathroom and keeps
the cockroaches out of the house. Despite everything I have said
here, no matter what, the roaches must go. I can't abide them.
We have a crawlspace under our house and it seems that without
treatment, it is the perfect breeding ground for roaches. So no
roaches and no ants - in the house. I'll live with the ants
outside the house. Poisonous spiders can stay out, too. What I
can't tell my neighbor is that I've come to have, if not a love
of these pests, then a modicum of respect for them. They are
industrious, if destructive, and if studying them keeps my son
outside, then for that I'm grateful.
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