Pardon the long absence. I've been a bit too preoccupied with the arrival and caretaking of Someone Very Small. But I feel perhaps like I am ready to begin getting back into the Natural World of the Living...
I always knew that The South was *buggy*, but wow. Just wow. In our year here so far, we've had infestations - in our two HOMES - of (sparing you all the incredibly icky photos!):
- camelback crickets;
- scary huge black horseflies;
- scary huge black, flying (and biting) ants;
- and now: brown marmorated stink bugs (native to China and only here in the US for the last 10 years or so)
Usually I'm not an enemy of bugs, but this is just Out. Of. Control. Especially since at the moment, the greatest congregation of the stink bugs is in The Baby's bedroom. They're not harmful, but YUCK. J., ever-the-Buddhist, said that he initially was apologizing with the killing of each one, but now, he just wants them gone.
Not to mention, our backyard area is literally an entire invasive species jungle. Seriously. most are non-native, just like the stink bugs. The current count:
- ailanthus trees (aka "tree of heaven" - there are, MILLIONS in our yard, an actual forest);
- black locust trees;
- japanese honeysuckle;
- english ivy;
- pokeweed;
- crown vetch;
- garlic mustard
These are just the ones that I recognize, and I admittedly suck at plant identification. I am quite certain there are plenty, plenty more. If we were to buy this house, I think we'd have no choice but to resort to chemicals and try to start over.
ETA: OMG. This stink bug thing is truly of biblical proportions. J. just spent over an hour ridding Z.'s room of them. If locusts or frogs are next, I'm leaving town, I swear!!
