(not pictured here)
...gnat thingys that can be found inside our house during warmer weather.
I don't even know what they really look like because they only appear as tiny specks to the naked (or aging) eye. These bitty buggies are small enough to fit through the screens on our doors and windows, and they seem to be present in alarming numbers in the summer.
Because they're attracted to the warmth of artificial lighting, there is always evidence of
itsy bitsy gnat-ish bodies - who have flown a bit too close to hot light bulbs and drop dead around our lamps.
These miniscule gnat-ish types don't bite and really aren't much of a nuisance, save for the bother of having to periodically wipe their tiny carcasses off surfaces. The little guys are the least of my buggy concerns.
One of the biggest headaches about living in the forest is that eeeeuuuuuw - there
are so many BUGS. Every dang day, there are creepy crawlies invading inside the house that I use the bug spray on, moooosh with a heavy book - or run screaming from.
There is a plethora (and amazing variety!) of spiders, ants (the biggest black ants I've ever seen stomp across our driveway daily), millipedes, silverfish (a favourite food of California quail) and other Flying Insect-y Things in these forested environs. Even so, living here and dealing with them is a decided improvement over BIG CITY BUGS.
It's been decades, but the memories are yet vivid: of battling fast, sneaky, plotting, evil La Cucaracha in old flats and apartment buildings in San Francisco.
Really and truly...BIG CITY cockroaches...they are the worst.
[shudder]
[double shudder]
[triple shudder]
P.S. We don't have the perimeter of the house sprayed several times a year like some folks around here do (to cut down on the pesty bug population).
Should we?
Would that kill all the beneficial-to-wildlife insects as well as the unwelcome ones?
2 comments:
We are reading an old
Golden Nature Book entitled INSECT PESTS,
a guide to more than 350 pests of home, garden, field, and forest.
Wow! There are a lot of BAD PESTS!
We're taking the 1966 book w. a grain of salt...though I could do w. a few less pincher bugs.
Joelle
p.s. I'm trying to figure out if your bugs are good insects or bad pests.
argh those gnats. we get them too. tiny delicate black ones that are really no bother, and plump round brownish buggers that you feel bump into you. I find that I slap myself a lot to keep them off. Here they seem to occur in late summer, early fall. They also love wet spots so make sure those counters are dry and the area around your sink drain is water free as well. we find that helps control them a bit.
OR... put out a yogurt container with a bit of wine and a drop of oil. They are attracted to the fermentation of the wine... go for a drink , get coated in oil and can no longer fly.
GOTCHA! It's a cruel world I know... But I and bigger than they are.
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