This has been another bad year for bugs in the Hupp household – for them, and for us. We replaced the furnace and hot water heater in our basement recently, and added more insulation in the attic. Basement and attic have been the favored dwelling places of the uninvited critters that move in with us each summer. The disruption to their usual abodes, plus the recent heat wave, caused more arachnids and other pests to seek out the rooms my husband and I habitually occupy.
As I’ve written before, my vision is bad. In fact, my vision is so bad that without glasses or contacts, I can barely see my feet. Now, I don’t qualify as disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act, because the regulations interpreting that statute make clear that corrective lenses are to be considered before determining if a disability exists.
But I am significantly limited in activities of daily living without my glasses. The other morning this was brought home to me in a traumatic way. I think I took a shower with a spider.
Readers of this blog know that I suffer from arachnophobia. I do not like spiders – outside in gardens or on picnics, anywhere in my home, and most particularly in closed spaces (like a shower stall). I am not typically claustrophobic, except when confined with spiders. Even suspected spiders.
I saw a black smudge on the shower floor that morning. That’s all I saw, because at the five-foot distance from my eyes to my toes, I could not distinguish any legs on the dark blur, let alone eight legs.
“Al,” I called to my husband, wanting him to deal with the invader.
He did not answer. He must have been on another story of the house, because he would have heard me anywhere on the upper level.
I would have to handle the crisis on my own.
I moved as far into the corner of the shower as I could, and aimed the hot water straight on the smudge. I still couldn’t tell what it was, but slowly it rolled toward the drain. And down.
I was safe again. From whatever the fuzzy spot had been.
I was safe, that is, until I got out of the shower. Then I put on my glasses and found two more spiders lurking in corners. Those arachnids I could verify. So I pounded them into oblivion with a shoe.
It’s been like that all month.
Plus, the cady killers are back. We had to have the Orkin man out again this year, to treat these cicada killing wasps. Last summer was our first experience with these pests. I hope we will not have reoccurrences every year now.
I am looking forward to autumn.
What’s your attitude toward invading critters? Do you believe in no-kill shelters for insects and arachnids?
