It Never Ends

  For the past few years, it seems that the critter parade never ends.  Here on the Bayou, we are always being bombarded by one throng after another.  Racoons, mice, squirrels and voles all call the Bayou home and multiply like crazy.  These critters not only raid the gardens but can tear up more things than I even want to think about.   Then, there termites (the worst!), grasshoppers, ants, deer flies, gnats and mosquitoes swarm us incessantly.  The bugs seem to plague the area in a certain pattern.  Starting in early spring with the grasshoppers, things go downhill from there.  Every two weeks or so, different swarms of insects smack us.  Some stick around for a while but others come and go rather quickly.

  The latest "plague" hit two days ago.  Midges!  Midges are everywhere!  At least this year has not been quite as bad as some previous years but that may be due to the rather stout winds that have been coming off the Bay.  Some thirty odd years ago, the critters were so bad that you could not see out of the windows!  The entire Little Bayou House was one creepy-crawly critter castle.  Now, they are more confined to the corners and around windows.

  If you have never seen a midge before, you might be tempted to call it a mosquito.  However, if you look at one closely you will see that, other than the initial outline, the two are a lot different.   A midge is sort of cute...in a buggy sort of way...a mosquito is not...in any sort of way! Also, a midge has the fluffiest antenna of any critter around! The only good thing about this latest critter swarm is that this type of midge does not bite nor does it eat the house (like the termites).  They may bother the stew out of you by getting in your face and hair but you will come out unscathed. They are not vicious critters, in the least, but that does not make them any more desirable.  Heavy swarms of anything are not pleasant and this is just the lastest we are enduring.  Midges...they come in silently to cover everything in sight for a few days before they fly off to die.