Apropos of Nothing v.10

Try the Bug ID forum - there are several people there who are really good. Where are you seeing them?

In my house, hanging head in shame. They are by the doorways. I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed today. I looked in the bug files.

When you step on them do they stink. We have them every spring and they hatch out inside the siding of your house. Quite friendly the ones we have. They are kind of funny feeling when they land on you though. I like bugs.

I haven't noticed an odor when I squished them. I have found a similar looking creature called a carpet beetle. Yuck, I am so embarrassed and ashamed. We have had a mouse problem and have been catching them under the sink. Coincidentally, they seem to go hand in hand, according to the internet. These are not good bugs to have in the house.

Elder Bugs. My brother has them. No shame - they return to the same place year after year. Seriously.

Except that these don't look like the box elders in the picture. They literally have them in the fall, I think, for a coule weeks and then they're gone. Do no damage.

But, truly, before you "blame" yourself for having bugs - check it out. You live in the forest and it's a constant battle to keep ahead of these things. It could be any one of us!

Did you post to the bug id forum?

Lynn, I can't help you with the bug ID, but I will say DON'T YOU DARE BE ASHAMED THAT YOU HAVE BUGS IN YOUR HOUSE! For cryin out loud, we live in the woods! You have probably every creepy, crawly, and skittery (mice are my version of skittery) in that gully behind your home, and no matter how many times you scrub and vacuum, they are going to be lured into the dwellings by warmth and easy access of food. It is part of being a country girl... bugs in the house. Some you need to be more concerned about getting rid of than others, but NEVER ashamed! If you want, I can bring you some of the spiders in my dining room (I keep tossing them out, they keep coming back in...it's a no win situation and I refuse to squish them) and we can see if they get rid of your beetles....

Kathy, we cross posted, but are in total agreement. Something to at least id and deal with if necessary, but definitely not to blame yourself for!

Yes, exactly.

Last year I was terrified that I had termites. There are so many creatures trying to get it. Now I love my spiders - they are my sentries. They caught all the flying termites. :-)

It looks like there are definitely people who will help to get them out. And we can all learn what to watch for.

I nestled in the needles this afternoon with ants, flies, beetles, centipedes, worms, and probably millions of microscopic bugs. I loved it. I laid there resting after working on a rock wall and smelled the aroma of decomposition and decay. Life is good. Your so weird Lynn. Bugs are part of the world of life around us. Welcome them into your space and curl up with them. You need to read a little "Waldon's Pond"
I sat and watched this cute spider for a half hour while in Hawaii. I was jealous of its kite like flying with each gust of ocean wind.

That is a cute spider! Is it one of the ones that camouflages as a bird dropping?

Regarding bugs, the only ones that have really given me the creepies were the large flying cockroaches I encountered when on a train traveling through Mexico. Oh, and one other kind, lice, which have an outbreak in my classroom at least once a year. I am doing my best to teach children that there is nothing to be ashamed of or tease people about, because these critters gotta live too and are always traveling around from home to home.

Sorry guys, I should have gone to bed long since. This daylight saving change is causing trouble.

Yes, that is what makes me special - I am truly weird, always have been, and shall happily remain that way. BUT I DO NOT LIKE BUGS OR RODENTS IN MY HOUSE!!!! Now, I am itching and scratching, imagining all kinds of critters crawling around. Just recently, we found a dead vole in my new GH (and some castor bean plants that were chewed to nubs, a nest in Joey's Fiero (the car smells like nuts now), a mouse nest in his Goldwing trunk, and squirrel nests in the bedding right next to the pillows in the barn loft. Slugs are in the other GH eating my Brugmansias.The cat has left presents in front of all our doors (such a welcoming site.) And the cougar is hanging out in back of the barn. I AM NOT a happy nature girl right now. The joys of living in the country!

Hey, Lynn, I'll see your 'bugs' and raise you a 'rats under the roof of my workshop'. But I'm not going to feel guilty about it. Unfortunately, it does mean that I can't really use the Love Shack as a workshop anymore because we have to take the ceiling out now. It provides too good a home for the rats. They have to live somewhere, but not there.

Actually, that bug is kind of cute. And that spider looks like Miss Muffet.

Weellll, Lynn, you DO live practically in the woods! I mean, didn't they clear the woods to build your house? These creatures have to live somewhere. At least the vole was dead. Good work with the castor bean plant! I took out two rosebushes today that I've had for about 15 years. I moved them here from my last house. Last year they were looking pretty poor and I babied them along. This year I took a look at their roots, only to find a vole hold just underneath each one. Needless to say, they were almost rootless. So I will plant something else there, in gravel, so they can eat just enough to stay alive, but not enough to kill my plants. Does that sound like a reasonable compromise?

I don't blame you for not wanting bugs and rodents in the house, but there is no reason to feel guilty about it.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2010 9:56 PM

Holly, I just heard about a gal who has a salon that specializes in lice removal for the whole family and is working to remove the stigma at her place. Okay, talking about them makes my head itch . . . I don't like cockroaches.

Steve, don't forget that we all feel like we have a standard to which our "nests" should measure up. What you have in your garden and what you have in your home are two things. You extreme campers who like to sleep in the smell of decay or wild men.

The bug is quite pretty. At first I thought they were a brown ladybug, until I took the picture and compared it with a picture of the carpet beetles that I found on the internet.

Rats, now that is a rodent that creeps me out more than my bugs or the field mice that come in nightly for their evening meal.

Oooh, cockroaches and lice. I am feeling better now about my cute little bugs! But I am not looking forward to all of that extra house cleaning that needs to be done.
Crap, I think I heard the mousetrap go off under the sink. I am going to bed.

Poor Lynn!!

For the record - I would make the cougar my first priority. Voles, mice, slugs, bugs . . . bad, but cougar. Yeah. You know, if you had a pack of dogs, the cougar would go elsewhere . . .

The game dept said not to worry about the cougar and only shoot it if absolutely necessary. They also said to have the grandkids wear bells around their necks to scare the cougar away. That still cracks me up to picture the kids wearing a cat collar with a bell on it just to go outside to play.

Yeah - the game dept always says stuff like that because they don't want to have to do anything. How long do you have to wait until you know it's absolutely necessary? That's just scary. I mean, bears eat mostly fish, carrion, nuts, berries. But cougars are OBLIGATORY carnivores. They need meat. I'm just sayin' . . . be careful.

Kids with bells on sounds like they're sitting targets to me . . .

How about cowbells? Forget the cat collars and go for the cowbells. We need more cowbell anyway...

I figure that cat probably has plenty of hunting in Lynn's area. I think it's important to remember that people have lived in the mountains with these animals for hundreds of years. There is still a lot of forested area out where you live, Lynn. Have you seen the cougar?

Aside from the dratted coyote, this is the most recent wildlife in my yard. (oh, the coyote was not actually IN my yard, thank goodness.) This is a baby Red crossbill sitting by the stream.

And here is mama, sitting in the privet tree watching. We've had a family of 4 of these birds enjoying the stream for long periods of time yesterday and today. Between these birds and the Pine siskins, they are making mincemeat of the mimulus plants that are growing in the falls between the filter and the pond. It is so much fun watching them pick among the rocks and toss plants around that I get little else done.

I love that Lynn hears the mousetrap go off underneath the sink and decides to go to bed! Go Lynn! Hey, maybe Joey will change his mind about letting Lynn get a dog, now that they have evidence of a cougar! That does seem a good reason to have a pack of dogs around!

I don't know, Melissa. A Cougar sighting while it's passing through is one thing. But "hanging out" at the back of the barn sound dangerous to me, especially with little kids running around. I'm thinking a dog is exactly what you guys need. And there are so many kinds of dogs out there - all sizes and temperaments. It's just a matter of finding what suits you.

I was thinking the same thing about the trap. That's how you know you're overwhelmed for the day. The trap goes off and you decide to get him tomorrow.

The crossbill is pretty cute. Don't know that I've identified those. That's my one regret with cats - that I don't have more birds around. That having been said, it won't be much longer that my outdoor cats will feel that they've "been there, done that". I hope they always stay interested in mice and voles, though.

Yeah, but I guess I wasn't sure if it was really' hanging out' in terms of staying there for a long time, or whether it was, indeed, just passing through. I do vote for dogs, though. Because she wants a dog anyway! And Joey should get her one!

Admiral thinks he is king of the birds, but I have found a way to thwart him because I will not allow bird killing. The birds flock to the feeder, of course, so I put up those wire fences in crazy patterns to slow him down. That way he doesn't have a straight shot to them. He also wears a bell, although he hates it. It's hilarious to see him jump into the middle of a bunch of big crows on the grass. Right now the crows are actively taking care of the moss situation for us, tearing it up and tossing it around so we can rake it up easily. Admiral watches intently and then leaps into their midst, as though he could take a crow down! HA!

Update on Cleo: my vet put Admiral on a low dose of Amitriptyline (which I didn't know they even used in cats) to mellow him out for awhile. Cleo responded quickly and has left her perch in the garage and ventured into the yard again. She also leaps down and approaches us to be petted rather than just sitting on her perch with her back to us. She is becoming less depressed already! Yippee for Cleo! Admiral sleeps a bit more than usual, but I see no other outward behavioral changes. I guess Cleo just senses he not as worried about being dominant right now. All to the good!

Nighty night.

Excellent! Crows are funny with cats. They can be obnoxious, but if they protect the little birds, then more power to them.

I'm off to bed, too. I posted Lynn's picture on the Bug ID forum - hopefully suunto, one of the resident experts will have an answer for her soon.

Raregem! I love the image of you tossing the spiders out and them patiently waiting for you to go do something else before they come back in. Makes me smile. And as far as bugs in the house, isn't that why I leave all the doors open - oh, no, that was so the terrier could come and go, with the bugs, occassional birds (oddly the mice seem to prefer outdoors, most of the year), no rats so far, ahhhhh, and me! (well, dh complained that the door handles were always covered in dirt/mud/stuff, so I just leave them open - problem solved.)

Lynn - you'll need more than one dog. There are cougars up in my area, and a few years back there was a number of dogs that met their fate via the cougars. This was occuring in a non-fenced suburban neighbourhood, and the weird thing was that most of the dogs were Labs & Golden Retrievers. Hungry cougars probably don't differentiate; I would be hesitant to let children play outside.

As far as bugs go - prefer that they not be inside my house. I don't think they'd want me in theirs, either!

The most efficient killer is a cougar. It has taken hunters out before they can lift their rifle. They prefer children and we have the occasional victim every few years. I have been stalked knowingly twice by cougar. Probably many times unknowingly. They are part of the beauty and variety of the forest you have cleared to build your home.

Okay, Lynn. This is from suunto:

"This is a carpet beetle (Coleoptera: Dermestidae); likely the varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci - see http://tinyurl.com/ye4gn4d for an image. The beetles themselves are harmless pollen feeders, but their larvae (see http://tinyurl.com/a76p4k) can be extremely destructive. See http://tinyurl.com/yun78p for a very detailed fact sheet with control recommendations."

Thanks Katie. I found some more this morning on the door frame leading from the garage to the laundry room.
Now, I need to clean the garage (it really needs it) and remove the spider webs out there. Bugs be gone!
Cleaner house! Just for the record, our house is clean, just not "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" clean.

Yes, I have seen the cougar when I was gardening by the driveway. Joey has seen it 3 times. The next day after I saw it, there was a dead deer behind the barn. We have no desire to kill it, I just want the GK's to be safe. I would be heartbroken if we got a dog and the cougar got it. The neighbor across the street keeps losing cats.

Laurie, hurry and post your pictures. We are all anxiously waiting to see your new addition.

Pixy, Glad to hear that Cleo is less timid now. Admiral definitely lives up to his name.

Sofer, I understand about the deer and wildlife, that is one of the reasons we love it here. But I do prefer that the deer do not devour all of my roses, the slugs stay out of my GH, the squirrels stay out of the barn (and beds), etc...... Joey always releases the mice at the edge of the woods, but the little buggars keep coming back.

Lynn, by my definition, this cougar is a problem. He's making your property his territory and using it as a safe place to haul his stuff. That's exactly what you don't want.

It would be heartbreaking to lose a dog, but if you have a dog that's with the kids, they'll be a lot safer. You'd need to get the right dog who knew what a cougar was and what to do when he/she saw it -- and there are those. Often the dogs that are lost are "city" dogs or are small or elderly or just plain don't understand the threat. A good howling dog to warn you of the danger and to make the cougar uncomfortable might be just enough to make him move on.

Wildlife is much nicer on the other side of the fence.

For any of you sweating through menopause & after, would you really want to be 15 again?

Yesterday, taking a break from work around 2 o'clock, the dog & I started up the hill for a hike. About a quarter-mile up, the valley widens a bit & off to the left are 2 streets with a few dozen houses, mostly summer cabins & ramshackle junkyards interspersed with actual, nice homes. Sometimes we walk up there because there's always a lot to look at.

But right where the pavement ends I ran into a young girl I'd seen before -- she & an admirer had asked me to settle an argument about whether vampires were real. But on this day she was standing there with her skateboard, weeping. Worried, I tried to figure out what was wrong. Her name is Ashley (of course).

She'd been kicked out of the house. Her mother had told her to "pack your (*&% and get out." So she'd packed her *&%$ and was headed into town to stay at her sister's for the night. She said she had been kicked out for not standing up for her mother during a fight with Willy, who appears to be mom's longtime b'friend. But Ashley thought she'd be OK, her fiance (here she waggled a tiny engagement ring at me) would help retrieve her belongings tomorrow, and she had her job at the casino restaurant.

I thought for a minute, not wanting to intrude into some other family's business but finally offered her a ride down the hill at least. She was so grateful, sitting there cracking her knuckles while I quizzed her. Yes, she smokes; no, she's not on spring break, she dropped out of school last year; everything was good when her aunt & grandma had custody of her.

I made her promise that she'd never met me if anyone asked how she got into town & then took her all the way to her sister's -- Hwy 18 is a very dangerous place to walk, and she really is a small young woman. When she got out with her skateboard, she said, "If I can ever do anything for you, please ask."

Afterward, Osita & I finished our walk, going past the address Ashley had given me -- yep, it's one of the junkyards, with at least 2 mossy RVs rotting away amid the oil drums & plastic playhouses. Next door, an older woman with some breathing apparatus had her dogs out for a walk, and I asked her what she knew about the neighbors. Bad stuff, she said, lots of domestic violence, drinking & chaos. As if I hadn't already felt heartsick for Ashley & my stomach tied in knots.

Guess how old our skateboarding, weeping, smoking, engaged high-school dropout is.

16?

Not even.

OMG, YOUNGER? 15? That is way too sad.

Yeah, I feel like throwing up & couldn't sleep last night.

Perhaps your act of kindness will have a positive impact on her life.

My DW works with kids in school that will never have a chance. We are fortunate to not be limited by parents in our lives. It is almost a helpless circumstance even when you get involved. My BIL and SIL took on 2 such children and after over 12 years the children now adults are a mess. They had them living with them for over 2 years and had to send them back due to personal threats, theft, and no basis of dicipline to even build on. I feel for you Summer. I hope your example rises above the limitations and challenges facing her.

I just can't imagine what it must be like to grow up with parents whom you can't trust or respect. To a certain extent, I was on my own emotionally, but there was no doubt that my parents were a stable family unit with unwavering principles.

It's always sad when the lives other people lead smack us upside the head like that. Nice of you to give the kid a ride, Summerkid. Hope she doesn't let her family hold her back in the future. It's a hard row to hoe, that's for sure. As a mother, I find it very hard to relate to people who throw their children out of the house, although I've known some kids who've done some pretty bad stuff.

Yikes, Lynn! Yes, it does sound like Mr. Kitty is making your place his territory if he is dragging prey there. He's found the happy hunting grounds with all the domestic cats around, and especially if you have actually seen him. I understood that cougars are not likely to be seen, but rather 'felt' (as in 'I never saw it coming') . Did you tell the wildlife dept. that he had dragged a dead deer to your place?

Also, once I finish the CPR certification & other training at the end of the month & am cleared to take on the disabled kids, I'm slotted in as someone who is required to report child abuse.

But where does it begin? And end?

Difficult questions to be sure. Bless you for being willing to jump in and help.

YIKES on 'Mr. Kitty' I think I'd have to get rid of it. It does seem to feel comfortable there.