Bugs Bugs Bugs

You know, everybody has experiences with bugs. Let's face it, they're a part of our ecosystem and since they're EVERYWHERE, it's literally impossible to keep them out of our houses. And there's something about bugs that just makes people go "eeeeuuuggghhhhaaaaeeeeeeoooooouuuuuggghhh!!!!!", right? Those legs, them eyes, that creepy crawly, sometimes slimy, sometimes hairy. Blech! They're just creepy, right? But, unfortunately, we need them on this planet, and even more unfortunately they make their way into our homes sometimes.

My family's had our share of interesting bug stories. My brother actually has arachnophobia which makes for more spider-hunting for the rest of us (since he refuses to even go near them any time we come across one).

Anyways, there are four experiences that stand out in my mind in particular when it comes to bugs, that I'd like to share.


The Moth Hunt
I think this was when I was still in middle school. I remember being pretty young. Anyways, Afton and I were home alone one night when we realized there was this gigantor moth in the house. I mean it was huge! So, we decided to try and dispose of it. We both had a fly swatter and began "hunting" it. However, it kept flying towards the ceiling at the light which, unfortunately for us small females, was too high for us to reach and get a clear shot. Even if we went and got a chair, we would still have to hit the light and probably damage or break it. We waited and waited for it to come down for a long time, and finally after a while, gave up. We pondered the situation and came up with this brilliant idea… The light was the reason why it was flying towards the ceiling… so why not turn off the light? Then it would come down and we could kill it. Yes! Genius! So that's what we did. We turned off the light. However, there was a major flaw in our plan. Once the light was off, it was completely dark and we couldn't see the moth anymore. We stood in the dark for a second and then suddenly heard the sound of fast-flapping wings coming down from the ceiling (and probably coming towards us for all we knew). We hightailed it out of there and shut the door.

What IS It!?!!!
I got home from school one day (back in high school) and found the most DE-sgusting thing on the ground in the laundry room. I had to stop and stare at it for at least a minute, trying to determine what it was. At first I thought it was a bee or a wasp, but then it was slimy and kind of long like a worm. It was also kind of small… what the heck? It was sort of writhing on the floor, trying to move, and was easily the nastiest thing I had ever seen. I just made a face and decided to leave it to somebody else. (I have come to learn over the years that in my house, that never works). Later, my brother gets home from… school or something. Alright, whatever. I was watching TV. And then a short time after that, my mom was getting ready to go out, when she stopped in front of the kitchen, totally repulsed, "what IS that!?!!!". I got up and saw her looking at the wasp/worm thing I had been looking at earlier in the laundry room… but now it was by the kitchen! What the eff!? How did it get down the hall!? This slimy, nasty, mutated worm thing managed to wriggle its way all the way to the kitchen. My mom ended up leaving with both of us completely baffled and grossed out. Then my brother came downstairs and I pointed out the thing to him. We both just squatted next to it, staring, trying to figure it out. What on earth was it supposed to be and how did it get there? Anyways, long story shot, we determined it was a wasp larva (I know! Ew, right? We found a growing nest outside our garage), and that it had moved because Brady had (almost) stepped on it when he got home, so it stuck to his shoe, but then fell off when he got to the kitchen. I ended up taking care of it by using a lot of tissue and the OUTSIDE garbage can.

Mirror Note

This is a classic story of Brady's arachnophobia. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this. I got up one morning after Brady had gone to school/seminary, to get in the shower to get ready for work. I walked into the bathroom and found a giant note written across the mirror in expo marker. It read as follows: "I am putting you in charge of taking care of the spider under the hairspray cap ^behind the door #havefun". I found the hairspray cap behind the door as instructed, found one of his shoes (since his room is right next door to the bathroom) and promptly killed the spider. I asked him about the note later and he said that he "didn't have time" to kill the spider. Really? But he had time to trap it, go downstairs to get the marker, and write the note? Yeah, nice try, buddy. In his defense, the spider was HUGE! It barely fit under the cap.

Spider's Nest
Again with Brady and his fear of spiders. Brady eats a lot of freezer foods. I guess he went out one day to the freezer in the garage to get a corn dog or something (I don't know, it doesn't matter) and promptly came back in, horrified. He told my mom that the freezer was covered in spiders and that he couldn't get his food. I was sitting nearby, and when he said that the freezer was covered in spiders, of course both my mom and I were like "what?". He was just like "go look!". So both of us went out there. And we did find the freezer covered in spiders just as he said… baby spiders. They were the size of ants, crawling all over the side of it and onto the door. I won't lie, it was pretty disgusting, but not as bad as actual adult spiders. I guess a spider's nest had hatched on the side of our freezer. We ended up wiping them off with paper towels.

Bonus:
Just a Little Girl at Work
This didn't take place at home, which is why I'm counting it as a bonus. Back when I first started work, there used to be a lot more guys working there. All the girls started later. It would always be me with these two guys, and they would always gang up on me and make me do the undesirable chores like the dishes and the bathroom and stuff (all in good humor though. We were friends). Anyways, one day one of them found a grasshopper over by the garbage can. A grasshopper! What the what? (Don't worry, it wasn't in any food or anything). And these two boys made me take care of it. They refused to go near it. Whatever. I told them their man cards would be revoked if I, the tiny little girl, would be brave enough to take care of the grasshopper and they would not. They said they didn't care. So I ended up sweeping it up and dumping it outside.