Headed into Fall or Being Bug Phobic

​The official dividing line between Summer and Fall (at least for me) is DragonCon weekend (a.k.a. Labor Day weekend here in the US). Once we’re past that date, it’s Fall. And I love this time of year.  It can be a bit wet in Atlanta as we get secondary storms due to tropical depressions/hurricanes. And it’s humid as everything, but that’s the South for you. It’s really not any more humid than Iowa, where I grew up.
One side effect of Fall is once the weather grows cooler,  THE BUGS COME INSIDE. I don’t mind bugs as long as they’re outdoors. The odd spider inside is no big deal, but when certain bugs (okay, let’s just call them for what they are — roaches) skitter under the front door because it’s warmer in here, that’s when I go nuclear.  I detest those things. This year I opted for an exterminator and that’s helped tremendously. The bug dude uses natural products so I’m not killing the rest of us at the same time we’re offing the buggies. Eventually the outside invaders  will quit trying to B&E the place once it gets too cold for them to putter around.
Luckily this house is nothing like the  ancient farm house I used to live in in Southern Iowa. There we had perpetual critters and it got to the point that the spouse and I could tell what season it was by what was crawling across our floor (worms, centipedes, the previous mentioned (and entirely hated) roaches, etc.) The wasps lived upstairs on the unfinished second floor. When they flew downstairs, we’d open up the front door and they’d go toward the light. Probably to fly back up to some entrance upstairs and repeat the process. WHEE!
Then there were the flies in the Fall. The upstairs windows would look like a remake of Amityville Horror there were so many of them. They’d “die” (not really) and I’d fill sweeper bags with them. Then they’d come back to life. Euuuuu! But then, this is Iowa where there was livestock so flies were inevitable.
We finally gave up and had an exterminator come to the farm house and  he did a good job, but it was a losing battle as the place had more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese. Which is why I like the house I have now  – it’s pretty bug tight.
So that’s life in my part of the world. How goes yours? <Yellow bug photo used instead of real critter photo for those of you who are BUG PHOBIC.>

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