Haunted trees, wasp attacks and...stick flies??

I finally convinced my son to help me rig up some "haunted" trees for either side of our door. This was not a particularly difficult job as it just involved sticking two small, dead trees on either side of the steps. I get these brilliant ideas of decorating for Halloween but he sometimes needs a little "urging". I do not think he was at all convinced that we really "needed" haunted trees at our doorway but he did drag out the post hole digger and set to work! All was going well, the trees were "planted" and the bats were hung! My haunted trees looked great! Then I noticed a large paper wasp nest hanging under the eaves of the house. Oh my goodness! This would never work! I just knew some unsuspecting visitor would be brutally besieged by the beasts! They had to go. Armed with bug spray (I was taking no chances with these boogers!), we crept up as close as we could to the nest. I sprayed..he sprayed..it was a veritable fog of spray engulfing the nest! Ummm..we soon found out that bug sprays are not the weapons of choice against wasps! They did not die! They did not drop to the ground writhing in pain! They did however get really, really angry! ....... RUN! ...... Daring to venture back outside about ten minutes later, we peered at the nest. No bees were to be seen. Maybe it did work.. maybe.. just maybe they died! He took a stick and poked at the nest. No wasps! He poked harder and dislodged the nest from the house. It hit the ground and then from the corner of my eye..wasps! They were lurking in the azaleas .. still mad as wet hens. ...... RUN! ...... Later this evening, I counted five more large nests around the house. This could prove to be interesting to say the least! I will head to the store before attempting to rid the house of these next nests, though. A few cans of automotive brake cleaner will get the job done! (For some reason, brake cleaner kills them on contact and it shoots at a nice twenty or so feet!)

Later this afternoon as I was meandering about the hill, I noticed a cloud of whatever in my brother's yard. I say whatever because I had no idea what was making the swirling cloud. I knew it was some type of flying insect but even up close and personal, I could not identify them. This mass filled his entire front yard around his swimming pool. Thousands upon thousands of tiny bugs swirled.. not in one large spiral but more like small eddies each swirling at their own speed. Some bugs would leave their group to join up with another and then that would split up. It was a never ending storm of insects. I would like to say that they were some type of gnat but most gnats here on the Bayou are the little monsters with very large "teeth". (I know they do not actually have teeth but geez, can they ever bite!) These little bugs did not bite..I stood in the midst of them and received nary a nibble. I did however wind up with quite a few in my hair, on my clothes and somehow even inside my camera zoom lens. Later as I looked at the photographs that I took, the critters look more like flying sticks! I am supposing that the speed that they were flying created this effect. To me, it looks as if I took a picture of sawdust being thrown from a chainsaw or some mulch being tossed in the air..not bugs! And there is my answer! Little

bitty, stick flies! Sounds like a good name to me! I really should be frustrated just about now since all attendees of the "Ugly Bug Ball" seem to now have migrated to my windows! Obviously, they are attracted to the light so my window screens have creepy crawlies on them! Hmm, the geckos will eat well tonight!