The Bugs
From a handful of harmless flies and eventually some lost bees that I met over 7 years in the French capital, I moved into the planet of the bugs. You cannot even imagine how many bugs there are: the bees, the ladybugs, the wasps, the cockroaches, the ticks, the crazy spiders and virtually any types of flying, ramping sneaky creatures you can imagine.
Let's dig a bit
A bug invasion
In our current house, there is a basement: a few feet tall space with dirt floor locked with a little door with unique purpose of accessing the ventilation system and a few water taps. I can tell you one thing : we will never go there, like never. Why ? Because there is a reason behind the presence of screens/nets on each single window of the house: avoid the millions of bugs to invade it. Are they starving ? Are they too hot outside ? What’s happening ? Why do they stalk us like that ? Believe me, they are queuing behind the screens looking at each single little opportunity to get in.
More than 500 types of insects live there! A few are nice and cute like the firefly, the ladybugs and some others but there are some less pleasant like widow and brown recluse spiders...
Bees and Wasps unlimited
I knew about the nice bees and the mean wasps but there is way more than that in the wild America. Just to mention the most common ones :
Yellow Jackets : type of wasps but what surprised us is that they have their nests underground which is super dangerous ! If you get through it while molding the grass, they might attack you pretty badly
Hornets : they look like giant yellow jackets, they are less aggressive apparently but they look like birds when they are flying ! Ark
If you see any accumulation of bees, wasps or whatsoever flying insexts, just get out. Do not even try to put spray on it or anything. Also, remember than in the USA, you should not call 911 for removing insect nests, you should call pest control or just find a neighbor : people are used to it and have techniques. Below a link to a video explaining how to safely remove a nest... not sure if you try it alone though...
Mosquitos
Wondering about the dress code for a cook out / bbq / drink outside in the yard and it is summer virginia hot humid ? If you are one of those that mosquitos just ignore, you can choose to go in shorts/skirts / short dress. If you belong to the one’s that catch each single mosquito, let’s strategize.
My strategy is either to stay inside (not that social I know) or to go as a cosmonaut. I am not joking. My actual equipment in the hot summer to enjoy properly a cook out without scratching for the next 2 weeks with giant red spots is to wear :
long slim pants (or yoga pants, mosquitos are smart and can below your clothes)
long sleeves
close shoes with socks
put bugspray all around…
Even with that, mosquitos achieve to bite me in a few tiny skin parts – usually my ankle, you know, right on the bone, or on the ear lobe. So nice.
One important detail : I love to try organic products but remember that these mosquitos are grown in the USA --> choose the one pray full of nasty chemicals. It is you or them. Remember.
The firefly
All this writing and searching about all these mean bugs give me goosebumps so I wanted to introduce the beautiful firefly also called lightning bugs. They are so nice and cute in the yard at night. Picture and link below.
So based on that
Long live the bugs, long live the window screens on the windows.