CREEPY CRAWLERS

Here at the lake residents have their homes sprayed on the outside for spiders every spring. Sadly, we were in Nevada in the Spring and when we returned home we didn't really think about it until...we were up to our philanges in spiders and their webs!  By then it was mid July and we thought perhaps we could buy a few cans of spray and save the $125 til next year. By August we were walking thru intricate webs throughout the house. The first person up in the morning to open the door for Max, walked thru the kitchen where webs were spun overnight stretching from the faucet to the pantry doors to the oven hood to the refrigerator door handle. Pfui!  I reach for the orange can daily and zap the little devils.  If they are in residence up high, the spray does them in and they plunge to earth, carelessly dropping into my iced tea or the stove burner, etc. Outside of the house they rule. That is their turf and they Will Not Be Moved, as the civil rights song went.  Webs everywhere. Pat has to swipe at the car doors so we can get in without being trapped in the driveway and held for hostage.  I could deal pretty well, sort of co-existing with them UNTIL I read an article a week ago about a woman who had an itchy ear and her doctor told her a spider was residing in her ear canal! GROSS! Now I sleep with my ears covered. No spider homesteaders for me, plus I now can't hear Pat snoring !  Yes, we have signed up for the late summer spray in order to reduce the population for next Spring. We are thrifty, but not THAT thrifty!

A few days ago Pat and I were out in the lake, bobbing in the two-person tube with attached drink cooler. "What's that?" I asked him, pointing up to our back deck. There was a brownish furry critter skulking up the steps. A cat? No...wrong tail.  So when we got out and I could get back on the computer to Google our guest, I narrowed him down to a Nutria, a muskrat or beaver.  He doesn't eat our plants. He seems to only appear at dusk. He has dug holes along the deck so he can climb under. (I filled them in with either dirt or rocks. Heh heh) I saw him out of the corner of my eye today when I bopped down the steps to throw some chops on the Bar-B. I stomped loudly on the deck boards hoping to scare the beejesus out of him. I'm sure there are other vacancies along the lake for him. He is not welcome here.  I admit I am sort of skittish about enjoying my hot outdoor shower when he might be hanging around. With a grudge. 

We have been told by various people that you can get rid of "them" by: peeing near their holes (don't ask!), putting vinegar around (yes), lysol (not yet), and the most popular solution seemed to be aiming an AK-47 at them and blowing them to pest heaven.  Pat has a license to pack but has been reluctant so far to resort to blood and guts. Hopefully my foot-stomping will do the trick.

That's it from the Lake, where the adults are all arthritic and the kids are just average.