Annual Home Invasion
Posted on | October 15, 2005 at 3:11 pm | 3 Comments
Another good thing about living in Colorado is the lack of insects. I’m constantly amazed when I visit some other part of the country and there’s a deafening wall of sound coming from somewhere that sounds like a metalworks factory has been plopped down in the middle of the backyard, only to have explained to me “Oh, that’s just the BUGS”. Well, we don’t have that kind of nature attack here in Colorado, no sirree… OHMIGOD, WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE THING CRAWLING ON THE WALL? Hand me a large book please, so that I may smoosh-ith it.
Yes, possibly we don’t have any bugs because the spider population keeps them in check. This is the time of year when it’s starting to get a little cool outside, and so the spiders have to migrate indoors in order to keep feeding on their prey: young children and small pets. I admit it, I’m freaked out by spiders. Whereas I think snakes are creepy but kind of fascinating and cool, I think spiders are just plain disgusting. Although I’m not as bad as my brother-in-law Glen, who runs screaming from the room like a little girl if someone even says the word “spider”. I guess my sister Lori has to be the designated creepy-crawler crusher in that family, which is why she is not to be messed with. (This should settle once and for all the question of if any of my family members read this crap.*)
Anyway, I’ve probably killed an average of one a day the last few weeks, and most of them look like the one pictured. No idea what kind it is – hopefully not a brown recluse. I also regularly encounter black widows in my garage, though I haven’t seen any in the house for years. And even then, they were only in the basement.
So, I dunno… is it worth it to not have a lot of insects in exchange for dealing with spiders? We do usually get a lot of ants in the summer, and every few years there will be a miller moth invasion or a grasshopper jamboree. Mosquitos and flies used to be more common around here than they are now. So, yeah, I guess it’s worth it. But I wish I had a laser to fry the little monsters from a distance, and something to automatically dispose of their desiccated bodies.
Latre.
* – And if any of you family members are reading this crap, let me just say that I’m not going to share any of my PowerBall winnings with you unless you can name two of my favorite bands.
Comments
3 Responses to “Annual Home Invasion”
October 15th, 2005 @ 4:11 pm
In a word, yes, Colorado has the best insect situation of anywhere. Try the nickel-sized mosquitos in Montana, the teeming billions of flies per square yard of rural Australia, the junebugs of the midwest that are big enough to dent a car radiator… Colorado is too dry and temperate to support that kind of insect population, and harmless spiders kill many of the rest.
Actually just think about Australia – the freaky termites which build cement-like towers a dozen feet high which can stop a tank. Home to almost every lethal-poisonous spider species in the world, many of which inhabit cities as easily as the bush. And oh my god, the flies, did I mention them?
But the moth thing is weird. At least they’re easy to keep out of your house.
October 15th, 2005 @ 10:44 pm
We have blessedly few insects here in the Bay Area. As for getting rid of the spiders, couldn’t you get one of those vacuum things they always offer in the SkyMall catalogs? I’m usually “live and let live” about the spiders unless they get right up in my face (literally — one built a dangling web from the ceiling in the office the other day).
October 15th, 2005 @ 11:04 pm
The problem with the spidey-vacs is that I’m always afraid the spiders have somehow survived inside the vacuum and are just waiting for the appropriate moment to burst forth all at once and attack me in my sleep.
InfK, Australia sounds cool!