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Blog Day Afternoon

Take a walk on the mild side.

Those Pesky Bugs

I think that most things in our world have a purpose. Forests and mountains and oceans all have a reason to exist. Animals populate the Earth and give us much joy. Even insects have purpose in many ways. They nourish the soil and pollinate the flowers and become food for other species of animals. But there are two forms of insects that I don’t see any reason for: flies and mosquitoes.

These two insects are everywhere. I can’t seem to go anywhere without getting bitten by mosquitoes. Those welts are so itchy and sometimes painful. The flies are so annoying when they buzz around me and land on me no matter where I am.

For some reason the flies seem to have a survival instinct. We bought some of those fly strips in the grocery store the other day to try to cut down on the fly population. We hung them up in different locations where we have seen many flying insects. The insects are still flying around and the bug strips are untouched. How do they know that the strips are there to catch them?

My husband has several methods to rid us of these two pests. He is deadly with a fly swatter, though the flies seem to be moving too fast these days. He uses bug spray to fog the areas where the insects seem to congregate. The bug strips that I mentioned above. Every month we have a professional bug spraying done all around the house. Wouldn’t you think that these methods would rid us of every bug? Oh, one more method, he makes sure that there are no puddles in the yard. Mosquitoes will breed in any water source. If there is a puddle from rain water he will take a broom and brush all the water out until it is dry.

Maybe I’ll have to start using bug repellant all the time. Or carry a fly swatter with me.

Comments

 

Romo said:

I share your feelings for mosquitos. I extend the sentiment to fleas and ticks. Why? What are they good for? I guess they make good vectors for tapeworms (fleas) and lyme disease (ticks), but I don't know of anyone who needs those, either!

June 4, 2008 10:54 AM
 

mike said:

Insects can be surprisingly resilient to any attempts to exterminate them. That's largely why flies and mosquitoes aren't on the endangered species list. Believe me, there would be mosquito reserves and mosquito protection agencies all over the place.

Flies do fill a very important niche in the environment. They serve as food for a huge variety of animals and help clean up decay that's in hard to reach places. Not a lot of other species do that.

Mosquitos on the other hand, serve no purpose. They fill literally no niche that other animals couldn't do just as well and much more peacefully.

June 4, 2008 5:44 PM
 

Cae said:

Okay, so let's ask God to just rid the world of mosquitoes, how about that? I don't know WHY He created them in the first place, and really, they're so annoying, not to mention potentially dangerous with West Nile virus all over these days. I wrote a blog all about how (I think) I've finally overcome the evils of the mosquito bites, though, so maybe that will help with the prevention of being bitten in the first place. I definitely share Romo's sentiments about fleas and ticks too. *shudder...* I haven't yet figured a way out of them, but if anyone does, let the rest of us know!

June 6, 2008 12:16 PM
 

writer lady said:

Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes -- wouldn't miss 'em a bit! Somedays I'm faster than the flys; other days my swing is too slow. One thing I've noticed though, if the AC is set low enough, they slow way down.

And before anyone calls me on my green hypocrisy: I'm not advocating that she turn the AC down, I was only reporting on an observation.

June 18, 2008 11:03 AM
 

mike said:

I actually have a nifty trick for killing flies that almost always works. They're extremely fast and almost impossible to catch in flight. They fly in irregular and unpredicatable patterns at speeds humans just can't match. But they do have one weakness.

They always jump straight up when they take off. So all you have to do is wait until they land. Then you just clap your hands about 5 inches above them and they will almost always jump straight into them. Their reflexes are far better than ours so they are fast enough to make it right up between your hands. If you cup your hands properly, you won't actually squash the fly. The shockwaves will just knock it unconscious. You can then escort it off the premises.

June 18, 2008 4:18 PM

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