The Termites Started It!

   The termites started this battle of bugs around the Bayou.  After Hurricane Katrina nigh on twenty years ago, termites started munching on the mountains of debris that were left behind by the storm surge.  It took years for the Coast to scramble out from under the piles and piles of smashed houses and downed trees.  In that time, termites happily chomped away on the mess.  Then, those critters took flight and aggravated the daylights out of everyone.  Not many thought about how the termites that were swarming were leaving their handy debris pile homes to infiltrate the newly built or repaired structures.  So...the termites made themselves at home yet again.  Once folks became aware that their houses were in danger of being totally eaten, the war began.  People sprayed their homes and outbuildings in hopes of eradicating the critters.  Nope...it is not that simple.  The termites moved elsewhere and continued chomping now infesting live trees.  It took several years before anyone thought that the termites were killing trees!  And the swarms continued...until just about every tree along the Coast has been damaged, if not completely destroyed.  Well, the termites are on the move again to who knows where.  The swarms let us know that the battle has not ended.  It has only relocated.  

  Now, there is a "new kid" in town.  The Neoclytus scutellaris has made an appearance. This is also known as the Gray-winged Neoclyt-Borer and, as you can tell by its name, it eats wood.  Once the termites infested the live trees and weakened them to the point that they are literally dying, this critter came to take advantage of the situation.  The Gray-winged Neoclyt-Borer is almost exclusively associated with dead or dying oak trees.  This saddens me greatly as I have always loved the old oaks that dotted the property.  They stood through storms, fires and humans only to be taken down by some tiny critters.  I cannot be unduly furious with the borer as it is only finishing up the work started by the termites.  I do wonder just what is next on the agenda for those nasty termites.  I do believe it is high time they leave the Coast.  They have already pillaged extensively to the point that just mentioning their name brings groans from all of the locals.  It seems that this Battle of Bugs will be never-ending.

They Are Out There!

  Wasps are some of the most feared of all insects due to the fact that they can attack without warning.  It seems that they can build their nests in the most unexpected places and will protect those nests with a vengeance.  Take one step too close and they've got you!  Running is pointless as the wasps can fly much faster than any of us can move.  In some cases, the entire hive can swarm out and cover you in a matter of seconds.  Hornets and yellow jackets can have a hive of thousands (yes, really) of critters and each of those critters is fierce!  It is best to keep a wary eye out for their nests and not venture too near.  

  Paper wasps nest in much smaller colonies.  Their nests are usually dangling like a little umbrella beneath a sheltered area.  Eaves of houses, branches with thick leaves, benches, conical wind chimes and bird feeders all offer shelter for the wasps.  Even a lumber pile covered with a tarp will suffice.  Yep, that is where the wasps were found today.  Mark found it the hard way and received a couple of stings before he was able to retreat to a safe distance.  Crazy thing is that I work in this area daily and see the wasps in the garden constantly.  Perhaps they are accustomed to my presence.  

  Paper wasps are so named because of their nests.  The nest is made from chewed wood fibers mixed with saliva.  This forms a papery substance which is shaped into the nest with open cells.  Each cell is fitted with a paralyzed insect or caterpillar before a single egg is inserted.  The cell is then capped over for the egg to hatch.  The larvae feasts upon its meal and grows to maturity inside that cell. 

  With all of the bad hype surrounding the paper wasps, they do provide one good service.  These wasps do a fine job of keeping the garden a bit more pest free.  If you can get over the fear of being attacked, the wasps can be viewed as helpful.   I hate killing them but this nest was in a spot that was undesirable.  Mark and Son needed the lumber that was housing the nest. We had no choice but getting rid of the nest and the wasps.   I am sure there are numerous nests around the place so we will have to be a little more careful as we work.  

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.    

Its April...

  Its April.  April is definitely NOT my favorite month.  Not that I have anything against any particular month on the calendar, it is just that April has this way of gifting things that I do not wish to have. April on the Bayou means a lot of things but three of the most irritating events occur during that month.  The first of April means that I have to start doing the "Grasshopper Stomp" which is a "dance" that the kids named when they were young.  I used to gather all three of my kids and any others that happened to be visiting into a dance festival in the yard.  There, they could stomp all of the Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers that they could find.  The "Grasshopper Stomp" became an annual event as well as a necessity.  Those critters have a tendency to take over the place if allowed.  During late summer, each female lays about a bazillion eggs (actually, about 250 but when you are stomping them it seems much more.) that overwinter underground.  Then comes the warm sunshine of April and those eggs incubate and hatch. The entire ground turns a rust color for a few hours before turning black.  At this stage, the critters are relatively easy to kill as they tend to congregate in mounds. After a few days, however, they all go their separate ways and it is hard to find them.  Then, a few days later, they become munching machines and can strip a garden in a day. It is sad that nothing eats these grasshoppers as they are toxic.  I can only imagine the mess I would be in if I did not at least attempt to eradicate a whole slew of them during their hatching stage.  There would nary be a green leaf left in the yard.  These critters get to a hefty size of about three to four inches in length and keep right on munching throughout the entire summer.  It is not good.  April brings some bad things.

  As I mentioned, there are THREE irritating events that April brings.  The second is gnats.  Gnats make their itchy presence known as soon as the weather warms but are hugely noticeable in April.  These critters bite until you feel like you are on fire!  There is not a good time to be outside even for a few moments if it is a calm day.  We always hope for wind.  A lovely, stiff breeze of about 15 mph is desired for its cooling and for its ability to blow the gnats into the next county.  Bad thing...there are not a lot of repellents that work on gnats.  Smoke is about the only thing that rids the air of the critters so "smudgepots" are a must on the Bayou.  Then with the smudgepots burning, you just have to choke your way through the day....BUT!...the gnats are not there to bite....except if you exit the thick, black, cough-inducing, breath-stifling, choking smoke of the smudgepots. 

  The third menace to plague the Bayou during April is termites.  Yep.  April is termite swarming month so just about evening time, everyone has to hustle inside, draw the drapes, turn off the lights and hope for the best.  While these critters are not as "bitey" as the gnats, they do cause problems.  Not only will they quite literally eat you out of house and home because they do quite literally eat your house and home, when they swarm they are everywhere.  Termites are not choosy about where they land when they swarm.  They sort of flop about in the air all the while bumping into each other.  That misguided flight pattern does them no good until they spy a light source.  Then they hone in on it and make a beeline toward it.  If that light source is a house, the termites squeeze through any opening they can find to swarm inside.  Swarming inside means that they now bump into everything inside the house....humans and pets included.  The critters are on beds, sofas, tables, in the refrigerator, in the toilet, on the ceiling, on the floor, on the walls AND in your hair.  Ugh!  Light fixtures become darkened with their dead bodies, foodstuffs can become infiltrated and drinks are dotted with floating termites that try to swim in your sweet tea.  They are nasty. They are wood-munching terrors.  They eat houses.  Enough said.  At least the frogs and lizards are fat.

  So, it is no wonder that while everyone else looks forward to April as it heralds in spring, I abhor the critters it brings.  The Bayou has enough critters that I do not need them swarming all over the place.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that just about every third year, we get midges....swarms of midges...so many midges that the Little Bayou House has to remain darkened during those swarms, as well.  At times, the windows are so covered on the outside that you cannot tell whether it is daytime or nighttime. Thankfully, they do not bite, do not eat my garden and have yet to take a bite out of the Little Bayou House!  Out of the FOUR Horrors of April, midges are the least annoying.

  Come to think about it, this is that "third" year.  I guess I had better soon start noticing if I need to draw the curtains closed and douse the lights.  Ugh!  April, why can't you play nice???  Living on the Bayou ain't for the squeamish, that's for sure.

No Use Fretting!

  With the huge amounts of rain that the Gulf Coast has seen in the past few months, mosquitoes have multiplied greatly.  They are vicious! Step outside in shorts and a sleeveless shirt and you are just asking for trouble.  Hoards of the pests surround you and start their feeding frenzy.  This worried me a bit as the grandlittles are visiting the Bayou.  I could only imagine the bites that they would suffer.  Mark bought a small swimming pool for the kiddies but, being a worrier, I fretted that the mosquitoes would devour our grandbabies as they played! Something had to be done to remedy the problem!

  PawPaw and MawMaw put their heads together and came up with the idea of a screened tent to cover the pool.  It worked beautifully!  Still a few mosquitoes and flies weaseled their way into the tent and again MawMaw worried.  This evening, however, Mother Nature was at her best!  She was handling the problem in her own way.

  A rather large praying mantis decided that the tent would suit her needs well as a feeding spot.  She climbed up the tent side and started munching those mosquitoes with glee!  The mantis was literally scampering after the pests!  Back and forth, back and forth across the tent, the mantis went all while feeding on the bugs.  MawMaw was not fretting any longer.  With this sort of help, the kiddos will be safe enough!