Tag Archives: insects

Insects in February?

Having an extreme dislike for spiders or any bug that is inside my house when its natural habitat is outside my house, I taught both my kids to capture the offending bug in case the exterminator needed to be called so it could be properly identified.  (I learned this identification need from necessity during the Berardi “Invasion of the Carpenter Ants of ’86.)

The best way to capture anything is to put a drinking glass over it, so you can study it.  Then when done properly identifying it, one can slip a piece of paper under the bug and under the glass and discard it outside where it belongs.  Or, you leave the dirty bugger under the glass for days until the exterminator comes to tell you what it is, cuz that’s what the dumb bug gets for coming into my house in the first place.  (I only call the exterminator if the same bug keeps showing up.)

Sciencegirl, who lives where there is no real winter, and it was 56 degrees out today, found this in her bathroom when she got home.  Never a dull moment.  What do you think it is? A wasp?  I’m off to research it.

wasp

FLYING SQUIRRELS AND CHIPMUNKS

I have Wild Kingdom over here.  Not only are my yellow jackets still buzzing, albeit quieter, but my chipmunks seem to be enjoying their home (my attic) while seemingly freer of the bees.  I can hear they’ve resumed their beer pong.

When the exterminator came out, he was the “wildlife nuisance” guy vs. their exterminator guy.  (Think Turtle Man vs. Billy the Exterminator).  When I told him about my history of chipmunks up in the attic, he said, “are you sure they’re chipmunks and not flying squirrels?”

Flying squirrels?  Are they even indigenous to my area?  

Hmm, maybe – hairy edge.  And wow, they do look alike.  But they are NOT flying squirrels, OK?

CHIPMUNK
true-wildlife.blogspot.com

FLYING SQUIRREL
blog.thesietch.org

Now, let’s remember that I’ve caught about 563 of these chipmunks and none of them were Rocket J. Squirrel (Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle).  So I’ve seen them up plenty close in my Have-A-Heart cages.

ROCKET J. SQUIRREL (Rocky & Bullwinkle)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_the_Flying_Squirrel

I’ve let so many of them go free from my cages at the local ballpark.  I set them free all in the same spot so they can be together as a family.  Sometimes, however, I’m afraid I run them over when I’m backing up, when I’m reversing the car to get out of the ballpark.  Damn.  I just hope they scamper quicker than my lead foot.

The Wildlife Nuisance man also told me, “Well, if you’re not taking them more than five miles away, they’ll come back”!  I said, “NO WAY, they’d have to go over the river and through the woods to get back here.”  Doesn’t matter, apparently.  He told me I must find where they are getting in.  We walked around the house and couldn’t see anything.  They slither so flat it could be anywhere.  Personally I think they are jumping from the trees onto the roof into that pipe thing that’s sticking out of my roof (does it empty into my attic? Or maybe that big ole’ fan I had installed up there.)

Either way, I’ve got to get rid of these critters.  The whole situation is really calming my aNXieTy.

P.S.  Notice it is I who could be TurtleWoman or Sarah the Exterminator, not Marty.  I am supermom.

BILLY THE EXTERMINATOR
beyondmediaonline.com

TURTLEMAN
kobreguide.com