We’ve been experiencing an invasion of sugar ants in our kitchen. They’re persistent little buggers and show up yearly despite our efforts to make them feel unwelcome.
But our sugar-ant situation is nothing compared to what will befall the Midwest and Southeast this summer. Trillions, yes, trillions with a t, of cicadas will dig their way out of the ground and spend enough time to eat, mate, and lay eggs, ensuring the health of the new generation. Welcome to cicada-gedden, as some are calling it.
All this talk about insects leads us to our prompt for this month–bugs!
Take three minutes to brainstorm all your buggy memories, pick one, and write the story of this experience. Then, share it in the comments section below. We’d love to commiserate with you.
Remember, the only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
I’m a believer in live and let live, as long as the bugs are living in their environment, not mine! There are bugs I appreciate (pollinator bugs such as bees, moths, and butterflies), bugs I dislike (roaches, ants, and gigantic grasshoppers), and bugs I can’t help but find charming (crickets, ladybugs, and fireflies). I grant a cricket in the bedroom at three in the morning is not a welcome guest, but there’s something about the tune they play on their little violins that makes me grin. Maybe it’s having read A Cricket in Times Square when I was young and… Read more »
As a kid growing up, I didn’t mind bugs. In fact didn’t run into critters until I moved to New York. Rats on the subway tracks. Mice in my brownstone building and roaches. Regular spraying took care of the situation but roaches were everywhere.
A dreaded bug we encountered in Pittsburgh was the Stink Bug. Unremarkable looking, round, brown, short legs, about the size of a nickel. Named for the odor they emitted when killed. If you stepped on one to kill it, immediate cleanup was necessary so the smell wouldn’t attract more of their kin. They were fairly easy to catch with a tissue and I then flushed them down the toilet. When they’d fly their wings made a distinctive flapping noise, you knew one was near. One night I reached over to pump on some hand lotion and found one sitting comfortably… Read more »
Like you and Etya, I have done battle with sugar ants. Have lain down a fine line of cinnamon along the outside wall of the counter. It was rumored they wouldn’t cross a cinnamon line. It worked for a while before we resorted to Terro. Our real bug challenge started back in our farming years, when, warned of a coming invasion of aphids in the soybean fields, Gordon walked out into the field to scout. If these things got going in a bean field, they could decimate it in no time flat. When he came in from this excursion, the… Read more »
Hello Particia,
I hate those little buggers. Have you tried Terro Aunt Killer? It is available on Amazon. I never used their traps, but the liquid stuff seems to work. Good luck!