What's the last thing that goes through a bug's mind as it hits the windshield?........its butt!
Colour planned and hooked by Sue Cunningham
There's no shortage of little creatures in our neck of the woods. The mosquitoes are out in droves and the black flies, n0-see-ums as we call them are out for the yearly feast. Something that small can do a lot of damage and make you run screaming inside while waving your hands in the air., frantically trying to fend them off. We are bigger than they are but the "harder we fall" thing applies to our battle with the bug.
Bugs don't play fair. They have equipment to track you and although we've clawed our way to the top of the food chain we still get served up like an all you can eat buffet. Mosquitoes are nasty little heat seeking devices, you can't do much to put off those irritants, other than keel over and die. No hot breath, no nibbles.
I have nothing against bugs in the out of doors, we have to share the world no matter how unfair it seems. But if they stupidly cross over my threshold, well I get out my vacuum and suck them out of the air or else grab the Executioner, a gift from a house guest last year. A tennis racket type device with a battery that zaps the pests into the next world. I don't like things that crawl or fly around in my house. My domain....so bugs take your chances! As long as I'm paying the mortgage, I don't want any freeloaders or unwanted guests. The survival of the fittest baby....and although it's an unfair fight one to one, like shooting fish in a barrel, I turn my love of nature switch off and do the deed.
We had company a few weeks ago and I was told they take their gadgets outside and swat away anything that comes into their personal space. I hate to sound like a hypocrite but it kind of turned my stomach. Killing flies outdoors in their natural habitat seems more like murder on some level. Seek out and destroy type of mission. Those bugs are a food source for birds and snakes and although most don't like the latter, we all love birds; happy, singing little birdies. But on the flip side, they are from Northern Ontario and the bugs seem especially brutal there. Until I walk in their shoes I have no right to judge. If the bugs are so bad in that area that people have written songs about it, maybe they have a point. I've never been chased down by a wall of black, vampire-like insects. Luckily I live in a place where the list of my complaints doesn't include air borne irritants.
Bugs don't play fair. They have equipment to track you and although we've clawed our way to the top of the food chain we still get served up like an all you can eat buffet. Mosquitoes are nasty little heat seeking devices, you can't do much to put off those irritants, other than keel over and die. No hot breath, no nibbles.
I have nothing against bugs in the out of doors, we have to share the world no matter how unfair it seems. But if they stupidly cross over my threshold, well I get out my vacuum and suck them out of the air or else grab the Executioner, a gift from a house guest last year. A tennis racket type device with a battery that zaps the pests into the next world. I don't like things that crawl or fly around in my house. My domain....so bugs take your chances! As long as I'm paying the mortgage, I don't want any freeloaders or unwanted guests. The survival of the fittest baby....and although it's an unfair fight one to one, like shooting fish in a barrel, I turn my love of nature switch off and do the deed.
We had company a few weeks ago and I was told they take their gadgets outside and swat away anything that comes into their personal space. I hate to sound like a hypocrite but it kind of turned my stomach. Killing flies outdoors in their natural habitat seems more like murder on some level. Seek out and destroy type of mission. Those bugs are a food source for birds and snakes and although most don't like the latter, we all love birds; happy, singing little birdies. But on the flip side, they are from Northern Ontario and the bugs seem especially brutal there. Until I walk in their shoes I have no right to judge. If the bugs are so bad in that area that people have written songs about it, maybe they have a point. I've never been chased down by a wall of black, vampire-like insects. Luckily I live in a place where the list of my complaints doesn't include air borne irritants.
We actually didn't buy a house we wanted because of black flies. They swarmed us as we left the car and my oldest dog, Honey, must have been allergic and swelled with bumps all over her body. She looked like porridge gone wrong. Pretty bad when you can't even take your dog out for a pee without being attacked. I wondered why there hadn't been much landscaping done and that experience answered the question. I love to garden so that would have been devastating to find out it wouldn't be happening. Luckily we visited the place a few times to get a feel for the area or we would have signed on the dotted line and walked into a nightmare for two months each summer. Maybe that's why the house was on the market for years until it sold......pity the couple who bought it during the winter months.
Now I know we all have the right to sit outdoors and luckily there are screened in porches for that. I guess I'm lucky in that I live close to the ocean and that slight difference in air temperature puts them off. I can go outside and not see any no-see-ums but once the darkness sets in the mosquitoes are out, they don't mind a little wind and they are heat seeking missiles, find the target and destroy it mercilessly. So I get even by going inside. You can do things to keep the mosquito population down to a dull roar. Keep standing water sources empty, after a rain don't let wheel barrows or rain barrels sit full of water, empty them or put on covers. A bit of cooking oil in a water barrel will prevent them from laying their eggs or kill them if they're already there. They hunt pretty close to where they hatch so do your best to not provide damp little places to nest their kin in.
Maybe if I lived closer to a wooded area and the air was black with swarming flies all hell bent on taking a piece out of me, maybe I'd head to Canadian Tire and stock up on insect dispensing devices, maybe turbo Executioners and do my Clint Eastwood, "Make my day!" impression as I zap my way to victory. So I shouldn't have an opinion on the suffering of others, we all do what we have to do to survive and of course stock up on Calamine lotion.
Don't you just hate being in your bedroom all tucked in. Just about to doze off when you hear a mosquito coming at you with a vengeance? You wonder where it will land and slap about your head like crazy every time the buzzing stops. I don't know the anatomy of the bug but it obviously can't steal your blood and make that infuriating noise at the same time. Unless you successfully slap it into yesterday, you fall asleep and awake in the morning to bumps that itch like mad. And now, with all the diseases that can be transmitted thoughts of bug nets surface so at some point as the temperatures rise and our moist, warm houses become the nests for their incubation, we might all be laying under fine woven netting.
It seems there are a few more bot flies out at this time of year. Rot and decay are front and center so the bot fly is right at home. These are the bugs that look like the common housefly but are dark green and iridescent. They can sniff out meat and swarm you in seconds to get a taste. Not to gross anyone out but a bot fly can find a dead body within fifteen seconds of it's demise and if any of you have dogs that do their business outside, you know how there won't be a fly in the vicinity but as soon as the deposit is made on the lawn, they swarm the warm appetizer by the dozens. These are the flies that give birth to the maggot, those pesky wiggling rice-like creatures that hang around our composters. The warm weather promotes mating and egg laying. If there is any food left out in the house, they'll squeeze past the screen door through the tiniest of cracks to get to the morsel. It's a constant struggle to keep food at bay.
Maybe you've noticed how the common housefly will follow you up the stairs at night and buzz around your bedroom, especially around the lamp by the bedside. A little tip. They are motivated by light. To get rid of them turn off the bedroom lights, go out into the hall in the dark and turn the light on in a spare room or bathroom, wait two seconds and the housefly will buzz right by you. Quickly turn out the light and close the door, trapping the little noise maker in there until morning.
Luckily I don't see many bugs where I live down along the water but I do hear the occasional dragonfly buzz by on the way to a very important place. They're always in a hurry to get somewhere fast. So beautiful with their iridescent wings. They're little fans to keep fairies cool in the summer's heat and if the fairy needs to visit a relative in a neighbouring forest, the dragonfly provides a taxi service. Honest.....a fairy friend told me that when I was a wee girl.
So although some bugs can be horrible, they can also be extraordinarily beautiful. Dragonflies are a prime example and when someone asked for a rug with a Dragonfly theme, I jumped on it. This pattern has been very popular over the years and the above rug was hooked by Sue Cunningham.
She hooked the background in Antique Black (dark green) that was abrashed with black dye to give it a mottled appearance and depth. This was the perfect backdrop to all of the brilliant colours used in the dragonflies and each colourful body pops off the page. She used a lot of our bright, spot dyed formulas and had lots of bits and pieces leftover from other rugs. This is actually a great rug for scraps.
The border was done in alternating colours from each dragonfly and then she whipped the rug with a skein of yarn that was spot dyed with the SkyBluePink formula in the book "SkyBluePink with a Green Smell" I made a few kits while the rug hung around the shop, its beauty drew people in and they wanted to take a piece of it home. The rug sold last year to a very lucky buyer. Sometimes having bugs in the house can be a good thing!
Now I know we all have the right to sit outdoors and luckily there are screened in porches for that. I guess I'm lucky in that I live close to the ocean and that slight difference in air temperature puts them off. I can go outside and not see any no-see-ums but once the darkness sets in the mosquitoes are out, they don't mind a little wind and they are heat seeking missiles, find the target and destroy it mercilessly. So I get even by going inside. You can do things to keep the mosquito population down to a dull roar. Keep standing water sources empty, after a rain don't let wheel barrows or rain barrels sit full of water, empty them or put on covers. A bit of cooking oil in a water barrel will prevent them from laying their eggs or kill them if they're already there. They hunt pretty close to where they hatch so do your best to not provide damp little places to nest their kin in.
Maybe if I lived closer to a wooded area and the air was black with swarming flies all hell bent on taking a piece out of me, maybe I'd head to Canadian Tire and stock up on insect dispensing devices, maybe turbo Executioners and do my Clint Eastwood, "Make my day!" impression as I zap my way to victory. So I shouldn't have an opinion on the suffering of others, we all do what we have to do to survive and of course stock up on Calamine lotion.
Don't you just hate being in your bedroom all tucked in. Just about to doze off when you hear a mosquito coming at you with a vengeance? You wonder where it will land and slap about your head like crazy every time the buzzing stops. I don't know the anatomy of the bug but it obviously can't steal your blood and make that infuriating noise at the same time. Unless you successfully slap it into yesterday, you fall asleep and awake in the morning to bumps that itch like mad. And now, with all the diseases that can be transmitted thoughts of bug nets surface so at some point as the temperatures rise and our moist, warm houses become the nests for their incubation, we might all be laying under fine woven netting.
It seems there are a few more bot flies out at this time of year. Rot and decay are front and center so the bot fly is right at home. These are the bugs that look like the common housefly but are dark green and iridescent. They can sniff out meat and swarm you in seconds to get a taste. Not to gross anyone out but a bot fly can find a dead body within fifteen seconds of it's demise and if any of you have dogs that do their business outside, you know how there won't be a fly in the vicinity but as soon as the deposit is made on the lawn, they swarm the warm appetizer by the dozens. These are the flies that give birth to the maggot, those pesky wiggling rice-like creatures that hang around our composters. The warm weather promotes mating and egg laying. If there is any food left out in the house, they'll squeeze past the screen door through the tiniest of cracks to get to the morsel. It's a constant struggle to keep food at bay.
Maybe you've noticed how the common housefly will follow you up the stairs at night and buzz around your bedroom, especially around the lamp by the bedside. A little tip. They are motivated by light. To get rid of them turn off the bedroom lights, go out into the hall in the dark and turn the light on in a spare room or bathroom, wait two seconds and the housefly will buzz right by you. Quickly turn out the light and close the door, trapping the little noise maker in there until morning.
Luckily I don't see many bugs where I live down along the water but I do hear the occasional dragonfly buzz by on the way to a very important place. They're always in a hurry to get somewhere fast. So beautiful with their iridescent wings. They're little fans to keep fairies cool in the summer's heat and if the fairy needs to visit a relative in a neighbouring forest, the dragonfly provides a taxi service. Honest.....a fairy friend told me that when I was a wee girl.
So although some bugs can be horrible, they can also be extraordinarily beautiful. Dragonflies are a prime example and when someone asked for a rug with a Dragonfly theme, I jumped on it. This pattern has been very popular over the years and the above rug was hooked by Sue Cunningham.
She hooked the background in Antique Black (dark green) that was abrashed with black dye to give it a mottled appearance and depth. This was the perfect backdrop to all of the brilliant colours used in the dragonflies and each colourful body pops off the page. She used a lot of our bright, spot dyed formulas and had lots of bits and pieces leftover from other rugs. This is actually a great rug for scraps.
The border was done in alternating colours from each dragonfly and then she whipped the rug with a skein of yarn that was spot dyed with the SkyBluePink formula in the book "SkyBluePink with a Green Smell" I made a few kits while the rug hung around the shop, its beauty drew people in and they wanted to take a piece of it home. The rug sold last year to a very lucky buyer. Sometimes having bugs in the house can be a good thing!
This Dragonfly kit is on sale this week at 10% off.
How timely, this was posted on Facebook last evening as I was writing this blog. I thought it might be useful to those who appreciate natural fixes. Most of things are in our houses and a quick grab when needed.
RSS Feed
