February 08, 2011

Battle of the Bugs

Like seemingly everyone else in the country, Joe and I are unwillingly sharing our house with scores of stink bugs and ladybugs. For the most part they have stealthily sneaked in and hidden themselves away in little seen nooks and crannies, but when the conditions are just right, they come out in force! The conditions which turn a lazy ladybug into avid explorer are mostly centered around temperature. Most evenings, we go through a complex series of mental calculations and deliberations in order to make the very important decision of when to stop loading the woodstove in order to achieve the perfect sleeping temperature. This is not a fool-proof equation, and we often err, usually on the side of making it uncomfortably warm. The aforementioned unwelcome insects, however, do not find the heat uncomfortable and just when we are getting ready for bed, the bugs are coming out to party!

After a few late(ish) nights in a row recently, Joe was looking forward to a strict early to bed night to get himself back on track. Lights out (for him) at 9 o'clock sharp! I was happy to support him in this cause, but I was nowhere near sleep myself when 9 o'clock rolled around (I rarely am). Luckily, Joe is not bothered by having a light on while he sleeps, so I usually leave my LED reading light on over my head and read for an hour or so past when he goes to sleep. This night in particular, though, we had made the mistake of throwing one too many logs on the fire, and the shanty was toasty to say the least. All of the bugs that were coming alive due to the warmth were of course headed straight for the "sun" (aka the reading light over my head).

I was determined to ignore the dive bombing bugs and even bite my lip and tolerate being crawled all over to avoid disturbing Joe....but then the ladybugs started biting! I can handle a lot of things, but I will NOT put up with being BITTEN by a LADYBUG!! So, I grabbed our bug-catching cup and decided I'd just capture each one that came my way. Easy solution. Well, I never got to read more than two words in my book before I was stopping to shake shake shake the cup (to disorient the previously caught ladybugs of course) and grab another bug. Joe's a pretty good sleep-through-anything kind of guy, but the heat and all the activity were definitely keeping him awake. Since it was too hot to get under the covers, the ladybugs were biting him too.

The final straw came when our cat, Foxy, came through the dog door with a live vole. Joe and I both instantly kicked into action to grab Foxy and throw him back outside before he had a chance to release his quarry in the house. At that point, Joe decided to forget the early to bed plan and go meditate for an hour in the outhouse. I tried to read for another fifteen minutes or so, but I was soon fed up with fighting the bugs and gave it up. The whole ordeal had tired me out and I fell right asleep. I'm not even sure when Joe came back in. Poor guy...good thing he's so good natured! :)

P.S. I always like blog posts with pictures, so I was looking up a good, scary stink bug picture to go along with this one. Google led me to a photo of a kid EATING stink bugs, which of course my morbid curiosity led me to follow to its original source. I then ended up on a well illustrated web page about bug eating around the world and had to read the entire article. I am literally feeling nauseous right now. I was going to share the web link, but on second thought, I'll spare you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know it couldn't have been a nice night, but your writing painted quite a nice picture for me. I must admit I am giggling a little bit. It sounds like something that would take place in a sitcom.

Virg said...

We're down in Elkin, NC and have a few acres on the Little River where we keep a camper and like to spend weekends during the summer. We love Floyd, and I really enjoy your blog!

We too are suffering through ladybug hell her in Elkin....there's a lot of theories around here, some of which lean toward a government conspiracy (I hear the Forest Service released a bunch up at Stone Mountain!!) to the more mundane.

What's strange this year is how they haven't gone away during the winter. They've been in our house all winter long. What gives?

missamandabeth said...

Virg, thanks for dropping in, so to speak :) I work on a farm down near the Little River. Floyd is a great place to come visit.

Yeah, I've heard lots of conspiracies about the lady bugs as well, usually they center around Virginia Tech being behind it since we're so close. They somehow find their way in each fall, MOSTLY stay hidden away until spring, and then find their way out again. They've been more active indoors than usual this winter. I can only hope they're making themselves as useful in the garden come summer as they are annoying in the winter.