Thanks to everyone who has left a comment recently. All are greatly appreciated, and to show my gratitude, I am going to gross you out with tales of creepy-crawlies.

One of the nice things about living out in the country is our proximity to birds and wild animals. I like most of them, but some that I don’t like get a little too close. Various species seem to always be trying to take back the little territory we call our own. This summer I began to think we are cursed with plagues, starting in July with the annual swarming of the crane flies, which look like giant mosquitos but are harmless aside from being annoying.

Spiders. These guys never let up. When I first began to visit my husband’s house, it looked like the lair of Shelob, and it still would if I didn’t vacuum the floors, walls, and ceilings almost weekly. We have tarantulas, like the one above that I snapped about a year ago, but although they are big and scary, they are very shy and stay outside where they belong.

Spider Problem - Bullet from Natural Selections EP (2009)
MySpace | Buy

The Comas - I Am a Spider from Spells (2007)
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Bee on catnip flower

Rats. Yes, we have rats. These are native wood rats, not the invasive roof rats or Norway rats of the cities, but we still don’t want to live with them. They like their own messy nests in wood and brush piles, but they like to be under the house too. We heard one rattling its tail in the heat ducts recently and then found evidence it had followed the plumbing to the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and that’s WAY too close. The cats for some reason took no interest in the invader. We put poison under the house (taking care that other creatures wouldn’t get it), and in a few days there was a distinct odor of decay centered under the sink. Mr. Folkie pulled out the dishwasher and under it was the body of one ginormous rat. Mr. Folkie says they get bigger than that, but if they do, children could ride on them.

The Slip - Even Rats from Eisenhower (2006)
MySpace | Buy

Cansei de Ser Sexy - Rat Is Dead (Rage) from Donkey (2008)
MySpace | Buy

Katydid on a rose leaf

Not in the house, but more frequent, are the evil, spawn-of-the-devil ground squirrels. These are not cute, acorn-gnawing, bushy-tailed tree squirrels. Ground squirrels are gnarly buggers that dig large holes and can devour a garden in an afternoon. I have no mercy on them. This has been a big year for them too; usually that plague is done by June, but they kept coming up to two weeks ago. I have done away with at least two dozen of them since spring. Rabbits are a problem too, but I can fence them out, and they have cuteness in their favor.

Meanwhile, on the kitchen counter, a trail of ants started up ten days ago and keeps coming and coming. I have laid out ant traps and I keep the surfaces scrupulously clean, but they have just kept on and on. Mr. Folkie says this is an annual fall event, but it’s the first year I have seen it. At least, and I am so glad, we do not have roaches.

Masters of Reality - Ants In the Kitchen from Sunrise on the Sufferbus (1992)
MySpace | Buy

So if plagues come in sevens, let’s see: crane flies, spiders, rats, ground squirrels, ants, and aphids (yeah, they nearly destroyed my melon vines). Should I expect a cloud of locusts next?

Filed under: mix, personal lives, Cansei De Ser Sexy, CSS, Masters of Reality, Spider Problem, the Comas, the SLip

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