Close encounters of the waterbug kind

I hate, hate, hate waterbugs, as much as I hate spiders, and more than I hate those annoying ants that pop up around this time of year.

I had an encounter with one last year that had me jumping out of my skin right as I was getting ready for work (talk about a wake-up call!), and had another tonight in my downstairs bathroom. I managed to get up the courage to kill the one I encountered last year, but the one tonight I haven’t found even after an exhaustive, irritating search that included assistance from my sweet mother, who (along with dad) has had years of experience killing little buglettes for a petrified yours truly. I swatted at the thing three times, and the third time it grazed my middle toe before scampering into the bathroom cabinet.

The downstairs bathroom isn’t that big so it’s not like there were a lot of places to go, but I guess waterbugs can crawl into very tiny spaces in cabinets and hide? I swear I do not want to go back into that bathroom, even though bug spray was sprayed all along the baseboards there and a few other key points around the house.

For others, this would be a minor inconvenience but for me, it totally kills the evening. I have an “unresolved issue” in this house (a waterbug on the loose) and I’m irked that I will not be able to resolve it before I get to sleep. I mean, what if I step on the thing while walking barefooted downstairs for a midnight snack or to make a trip to the bathroom? Eek. Furthermore, I’m worried that I’ll encounter the thing in the morning in the upstairs bathroom – the first one I saw last year I had initially seen in my laundry room. I couldn’t find him as he ran off underneath the dryer but the next morning he crawled into my upstairs bathroom. I hope tomorrow doesn’t see a repeat of that little incident.

Spring is beautiful but the bugs coming out is the one thing I hate about it.

Oh, and did I mention the black snake I saw in my yard about two weeks ago? Yeah, I know they are “harmless” but they still slither and look scary. This is the price I pay for living in a beautiful wooded area, I guess.

Steve Skubinna says:

June 10, 2008 at 11:09 pm

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: .45 ACP hollow points. My all purpose solution for nearly everything from bugs to zombies.

Severian says:

June 10, 2008 at 11:17 pm

Just how big was this creature? I mean, I killed one wandering across the kitchen floor from the garage that was a good 4-5 inches long just the other night (the rain drives them in). If you’re freaked by bugs, dear ST, you better steer clear of Florida, the bugs down here are big enough that when you wake up at night you can see them trying your shoes on.

But, of course he’ll be heading upstairs, you’ve poisoned the downstairs and he won’t want to stay there. I know, I’m no help eh?

I can still remember years ago I was working with a guy who’d just moved down from Boston. We were in the lab area and he was out in the office desk area, when we heard this stomping and cursing and $#&*^$# that’s the biggest damned roach I’ve ever seen! We all piled out to see this epic monster, and there was this little thing running across the desk. I said, what do you mean big, that’s a baby! He replied, horrified, you mean they get bigger than that!!! We all told him they get big as alley cats down here, but not to worry, the gators keep them under control

Great White Rat says:

June 10, 2008 at 11:56 pm

I swatted at the thing three times, and the third time it grazed my middle toe before scampering into the bathroom cabinet.

If you whacked him three times, he was probably just looking for some Advil….

My backyard abuts woods owned by the county, and I get deer, foxes, and the occassional groundhog wandering in, but no reptiles yet. But I’ll take your Carolina waterbugs if you’ll take the Jersey mosquitos.

forest hunter says:

June 11, 2008 at 12:34 am

Don’t ask me! PS: The Goki Buri he’s singing about means cockroach

Actually my cats hunt them and leave the crunched carcass for me to find in the morning (not that they’re big or anything!)

benning says:

June 11, 2008 at 7:50 am

I hate bugs! But living in Florida, well, you just have to get used to them. A little.

I leave the small spiders alone. I figure they’ll eat some of the bugs so I won’t have to see them. But when I was cleaning carpets, I recall moving a lady’s surfboard, from behind her couch, and there on the wall was the boiggest danged spider I’d ever seen! Bigger than my hand!

Well, she shrieked, I yelped and then I went crazy. I knocked that huge bugger off the wall, sprayed it with carpet cleaner, and stomped it. And kept stomping it! It was freakin’ huge!