Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Great Bug Hunt!

I am not a fan of insects.  Mosquitoes, gnats, spiders (yes...not an insect but in my world they fall into the same annoying creepy category)...anything that has more than 4 legs is just wrong.  There are few exceptions. Ladybugs are just cute, darnit!  And I do appreciate praying mantises even though they scare the crap out of me.  But for the most part i just don't like bugs.  SO, when I was planning my gardens in the spring I decided not to plant milkweed because last year I spent the whole summer killing aphids.  I tried to let the ladybugs do their best, but there were too many aphids and I finally had to use insecticidal soap, which the ladybugs and their children didn't appreciate.  This year I was all happy, thinking "No nasty bug hunting!  Yay!"  Then I noticed my butterfly bushes were looking funky...the leaves all mutant-looking and the flowers all stunted.  I couldn't figure out what was going on.  THEN...I saw it.  At first I didn't know what it was.  I thought maybe it was a tick.  Then I saw another...and another...and another!  All different sizes!  When I saw an adult I knew what I was dealing with...STINKBUGS!!!!!!  Apparently stinkbugs just love butterfly bushes.  WHO KNEW!!  Now instead of my daily excursions into the backyard to kill aphids, I am hunting stinkbugs.  Ick!  I put on my "toxic hat" (I call it that because it has been sprayed with Deep Woods Off so many times I think if you touched it without gloves your fingers would turn black and fall off), fill up my trusty spray bottle with soapy water and go bug hunting.  Stinkbugs are sneaky...they see you coming and they hide.  You really do have to HUNT for them.  It kind of sucks that my life has come down to this...spraying stinkbugs, sometimes 3 times a day!  I could spray every one I see, come back in 10 minutes and there would be a whole new crop of them!!!  Again I say ICK!!  Also, as I am spraying my soapy water on the nasty bugs, I usually have sweat running into my eyes and a black lab puppy shoving a slimy rubber ball into the back of my legs.  Do I know how to have fun or what!!!!  I have to admit though, it is kind of satisfying to kill them.  They put on quite a show!  They twitch, stagger about, then fall onto their backs and wave their nasty little legs in the air and then die.  Very cartoonish.  So...that's it.  Stinkbugs.  They suck.  Thanks for reading!