an entire post about bugs

For the most part, I live a calm life.  Every so often, life gets interrupted by random things like palmetto bugs.  And that's when my life turns into chaos and my mornings are thrown off completely.

I've been thinking a lot about these palmetto bugs lately.  I don't recall EVER seeing them growing up in the 18 years that I lived on a farm in Cross Anchor.  Never.  We had the occasional german roaches and the spiders and such, but where were the palmetto bugs?  And then I move to Columbia (ahem, 10 years ago) and it was a game of who could kill them before they made it under the couch.  This was about once every two weeks or so.  I remember seeing them dart under the door at ol' 1200 Henderson, get the deer-in-headlights glaze, then bolt for some sort of shelter.

Cue my transition to Atlanta (ahem, 5 years ago) and it's like they've followed me.  Though usually, I'd only see them in the Spring and Fall after having the windows open all day.  It was more like one a month, if that.  And they were generally wall crawlers scurrying in through the open window to escape the impending cool night only to be greeted by me, a can of Raid and a running shoe.  Except for that one time I found one in my dryer, dead, after drying my clothes.  And I had to wonder if it also made it through the wash cycle too.  On second thought, I'd rather try to forget that case.

And now here I am in Decatur, loving my calm apartment in my cozy neighborhood and all of the sudden, I've seen 10 in a month.  Granted, I might be seeing the same one over and over as I'm convinced that when I spray one with half a can of Raid, it probably never really dies..just retreats to a corner and regenerates into a more powerful, and larger bug.  And repeat.

So I took all the precautions.  No food was left out.  Ever.  I've even started drying my sink before I leave so there's no water source.  I sprayed home defense mind-altering pesticides.  And then, I bought extra large roach poison traps.  And suddenly, everything was good again.  A week went by without any sign of one.  The war was nearly over (or at least until this fall when the windows are open).

Until this morning.  When I was walking around post-run, hurriedly getting myself together for work and I walk into the kitchen and step on something.  I kept walking but then something triggered in my mind to stop and think about what just happened.  I turned around and at first, saw nothing.  But then there it was.. sure enough.. a writhing palmetto bug with one leg laying beside it.  LUCKILY, I had stepped on it while still wearing my running socks.  Whew.  And in typical palmetto bug fashion, one step does not kill it.  Oh no, it takes multiple attempts.  And the blasted thing escaped under the fridge before I could kill it.  So I got all mad and kicked its leg under the fridge for good measure.

Never a dull moment for me, I find myself on my hands and knees spraying a constant stream of Raid under the fridge.  After a while I can hear it moving under there but no visual sign.  20 minutes later, I'm again hurriedly getting myself out the door, already late for work and there it goes!  Bolting with a gimp (down one leg but still going strong) from the fridge to under a shelf!  I had deja-vu as I definitely killed one here a few weeks ago.  Never fear, I drowned it in Raid and left it on the floor so the 'others' can see what will happen if they try to mess with my kitchen.

I'm not a mean guy, I'll occasionally trap some bugs and release them into the yard.  But I have to put my foot down (ha!) on these.  And spiders.  And bears.

This is not the first time I've blogged about my encounters: I've dealt with them while exercising and I've also fed them to spiders in the past.  So, the score is now: Palmetto Bug - 23, Me - 3