Bugs

One thing about living out of the city, and particularly living around a lot of trees: there are a lot more bugs.

Thanks in part to the warm spell we've been having, there have been a LOT of stink bugs in our house. A lot. They're getting in through the window a/c units (which we need to take out at some point), and the room they like most is Michael's. I've never been able to smell stink bugs before, but one day Keith vacuumed about fifty out of Michael's windowsill, and it's hard not to smell that many.

Michael doesn't mind them when they're just crawling around, but when they buzz around drunkenly and bump into things they scare him. Part of our routine before naps and bedtime now includes reassuring him there are no bugs (and removing them if there are any). More than once he has woken up from a nap crying and when I go in he looks at me with big eyes and says, "Bugs!" Poor guy!

It's not just stink bugs, of course. We've had a praying mantis on our back deck, spiders of various sorts both inside and out, beetles, and most notably there was a wheel bug on our porch. We took pictures, but I am not putting them up in the post, because seriously? Wheel bugs are not for the faint of heart. You can click to look if you want. These things, they just aren't ... terrestrial. They look like they belong in outer space, or a horror movie, or maybe both. We discovered ours right as the delivery many showed up with a pizza, so the three of us (plus Michael) stood around gawking at it until it started waving its arms at us, at which point we all sort of slowly backed away.

It hasn't showed up since then, but I have visions of coming onto my porch with an armful of toddler and groceries and things, fumbling for my keys, and suddenly ... nose to nose with the ugliest bug you've ever seen.

But, apparently, wheel bugs are one of the only things that eat stink bugs. So I guess it's our friend?