At War With Bugs

I believe that with the changing of the seasons, the insects are searching for any bit of warmth they can find, and it almost seems like we are under siege by them.

Recently while camping, the husband/lover/best friend and I had some skirmishes with bees and flies.  The day we arrived at our campsite, and the moment I got out of our vehicle, I got stung on my hand in my pocket by a bee.

Apparently the bee got into my pocket just a millisecond before my hand did, and my hand looked like a big threat, so he did battle with me.  Now it has been years since I was stung by a bee, but this encounter brought back the memories of how a sting can make you do some ridiculous flailing and thrashing and squeezing of the stung part and saying lots of bad words nearly bring you to tears.

When we were young kids, we would spend our summer mornings getting our chores done, so that after lunch we could head as a family to the community pool.  That seemed to be a place where lots of kids got stung, as the bees loved to hang around the clover, and we were all barefoot, of course.

 I didn't know of anyone at that time that was allergic to bee stings, but now that I have children of my own, I have watched them get stung throughout the years, and one of them seems to show increasingly worse symptoms each time she gets stung.  The last time she was stung it was between the eyes on the bridge of her nose.  The following day she had no bridge on her nose, and the bruising all around both eyes appeared as if she had been in a boxing ring the night before.  Is she developing an allergy?  I don't know, but she would probably be wise to avoid bees.

That week while we were camping (mid-September), we also noticed that at a certain time of the day, the flies descended en masse.  They landed on us, on our food and drinks, on the books we were reading, and all over our camper.  The gyrations we both did to enter and exit the camper in as swift and skinny a mode as possible would have been hilarious to watch.  Luckily nobody else was camped anywhere near to us.  Even so, too many flies were able to get in there somehow.

Here is a view at about 4:00 PM looking out the door of our camper.  You can clearly see the hoards waiting for an ambush.  Those stinkers were relentless once they showed up each day, and needless to say we dined inside.

I've also recently noticed an increase of little spiders around outside our home.  The are probably strategizing on how and when to move their forces inside.  This little guy was on guard on my car's driver side mirror this morning.

My oldest daughter Rachel is a bit of an arachnophobe, so I'm sure she is fairly spazzing out as she looks at this picture.  Sorry Rachel, but it is a battle and they are all around us.

Last, and probably the most annoying and prevalent insects I have seen lately, are those stink bugs.  They are getting in the house, in the camper, and probably marching toward our vehicles too as I write this.

I have been told that they should never be squished in the house due to the hellacious smell that will be released, and so I've been careful to gently capture each one in a tissue and either flush it or set it free outside.  

However, we recently had an unexpected and darn near sickening stink bug happening.  The other day my son and his dog returned from a long walk.  The minute they entered the room we were in, we screamed for them to get out - it smelled as if he had tracked dog poop into the house. 

 But after we all checked our shoes and determined we were all clear, he noticed that the puppy's breath reeked.  It practically threw him back across the room.  Our theory is that she had chewed up a stink bug.  She's fascinated with any small moving insects, and most likely took it in as a snack.  After a treatment with doggy toothpaste and mouth freshener, the stench was gone.

So what's happening in YOUR neck of the woods?  Are you doing battle with the bugs?

And if so, WHO's WINNING?