I have a phobia about bugs..... and since I've been living south for about 12 years, I thought that I'd seen it all. The size of the tree roaches here in Texas is really scary.... If one ever got in my house, I'd have to move. Seriously. They are hoooooge. I've seen them out and about, and they are nasty.
Today, though, I saw something that I've never seen before. Went out on the backporch to have a cigarette. There. On the flower pot. The ugliest thing I have ever seen. The weirdest thing I've ever seen. The scariest thing I've ever seen. It was at least as long as my index finger, but the antennae were longer. It was some kind of beetle. It was white with black stripes. It was creepy! I yelled for my son to come see it. (This was after I retreated back into the house behind the screen door, mind you). He says he had seen one like it before, but didn't know what it was. He wanted to get my camera and take a picture. I told him Noooooooooooo!! I don't want that ugly picture on my camera! Okay, so I'm really a chicken. Don't even want a picture of the ugly thing.
Curiousity got the better of me though. I searched on the web for it. I found it. It's HERE. The Cottonwood Borer. There are no cottonwood trees in the neighborhood that I know of. But my next door neighbor has a big willow tree in her backyard. And apparently they also like willow trees. I have ALWAYS hated that tree. I think willow trees are gorgeous next to a pond or a creek, but I know for a fact that their roots can do major damage to foundations and underground pipes. Now I have another reason to hate that tree! I'm NOT going to tell her about these critters because hopefully they'll kill the damn tree.
I'm a bad person, aren't I?
Oh, the fugly bug is gone. I don't know where it went, but everytime I open the backdoor, I am compulsively checking to make sure it's not on the porch.
I'm a wimp......
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1 comment:
awwww Tony, I always knew you were a big ol' softie!!!
We don't have a problem with mice, but there are a lot of feral cats that prowl our neighborhood. One has taken up housekeeping in my next door neighbors shrubs..... it drives my dogs absolutely nuts! But if it keeps the rodent population down, that's okay. Just as long as it stays away from the birds!!! I have a family of purple finches living in one of my baskets (again) on the porch. They come back every year to raise their young. They are sweet....
In New York, our neighbors had a terrible mouse problem in the winter. We lived across the street and never had a single one (that I know of). I can remember sitting at their house playing cards and hearing a snap overhead..... they set traps up in the attic. He says "another one bites the dust" and I died a little inside. I'm like you - I wouldn't want to kill the little critters either.
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