Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 23, 2024

And yet you’re buggy

Still too warm here.

Tis the season for box elders and lady bugs.

I think we’ve had our last real warm day in Southern Wisconsin. Still a few bugs out there on Tuesday…

We’re not due for a hard freeze for at least a couple weeks. Mosquitoes everywhere. Thinking of the people here in 1878 praying for a freeze to end the Yellow Fever season, without knowing yet that mosquitoes carried Yellow Fever – they just knew the season ended with the first hard freeze!

A marvelous day for a rain dance. Tomorrow’s forecast? 80° and clear.

Maybe where you live. I killed at least 10 mosquitoes today.

I will admit that’s a reduction, though. Ahhh. Florida’s just about like Eden.

Hilarious?

This is the time of the year when the creepy crawlies come inside to extend the season. I’ve even had a few ant visits, probably from new nests that picked the wrong time to hatch out and start exploring.

Better not move to the kids area then

Regarding Janis’s new “do”. I didn’t start coloring my hair till I turned 65, did it for my birthday. No one noticed, she did a really nice job of blending the gray. So then my husband died and my income was about a third of what it was when he was alive. So I stopped coloring it as a cut and color was about $170, and I figured no one would look at me and believe my hair was still dark brown. I wore it chin length. So two weeks ago I went in for a cut and Monica said “just a trim and shape up?” I said “no, I want it whacked off.” So now I have shorter, (not like I got a crew cut or anything) kind of a shorter wedge cut. I think it makes me look younger because it cut off a lot of the gray! Easier to style, I don’t have to throw my brush across the bathroom anymore! I’m kind of testy in the morning as my husband would have attested to. He liked my hair any way I chose to wear it, short, long, brown, gray, curly, or straight. I only have myself to please. :)

Around here it will soon be “Stinkbugs get in the house” season.

I dig this one the most.

I need it colder, I’ve a wasp nest in the siding when poison doesn’t reach so I need to open up the siding and dig out the wasps. Right now they are still a bit active, even after a frost or two.

Really like Arlo & Janis. They complement each other, support each other, are still in love, and have a great kid! And that cat – yea! Who could ask for more?

So, this ain’t in Louisiana for sure. Although the lovebugs have slowed down a lot, the skeeters are waiting until about lunchtime (pun intended) to come out around here.

Forget the bugs and celebrate the fall colors. That is the highlight of this season.

no boxelders?

Unfortunately, it’s all ladybugs and boxelder bugs here now.

The aspect that there are no/very few bugs help make this a wonderful time of year.

Fall is a wonderful time! Spring is my favorite, but I underestimate this time of year! Love the artwork!

There are fewer insects year round. This is a problem. reuters .com /graphics /GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT /INSECT-APOCALYPSE /egpbykdxjvq/

Buggy here too. Bees are dopey though.

Here in northernmost Maine, the bugs are gone. All summer I’ve been feeding wild ducks twice daily in my driveway. For a few weeks I had as many as 120 ducks show up twice a day for feed. Last Wednesday morning was the last time any showed up. I guess they’ve flown south for the winter. Some hunters are going to have some well fed ducks for supper. I spent nearly $500 on feed for them this year.

Living in OK we have lots of bugs. Brought our sonic bug Killers with us from San Antonio. About a week or so after we first plugged them in throughout the house, we had bugs everywhere, from silverfish to spiders, since then we might find the occasional bug frozen in place, mosquitos, when they get in only last a few minutes. No, the sound they emit doesn’t bother our dog in the slightest.

I was sitting on the deck yesterday enjoying the late summer-like weather and realized there were no bugs!! So nice.

They have all moved inside.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. :)

Ladybugs swarming here.

I can safely sit out at night and look at the stars without be eaten alive!

Flies & Box Elders still prospering in Iowa

So now the birds have none of them to eat . . off to other foods!

Snow to shovel.

Can’t wait!

In the 30’s the past week when I get out of bed then warms to the upper 70’s by late afternoon. Must have slayed 2 dozen of those red wasps on the screened porch.

Exactly how I feel except the field mice start to try to come in.

I wonder where they live. Mosquitos survive and feed on you, until the weather gets to 20 degrees F. We still have plenty of bugs here. Trying to get inside the house and living through the winter.

What about snow worms and ice lice?

Not quite yet here- still swarmed with boxelder bugs & asian lady beetles, but the biters are mostly done. The lady beetles swarm after the soybean harvest.

so many yellow ladybugs

Where the HECK is THAT?! We got bugs all year around!

Just remember, no bugs means no birds.

no mowing after that frost…hooray!!!!

I’m going to change the subject here. Does Janis look a little “chunky” here?

We have a few million Ladybird beetles trying to get in for the winter.

soon but not yet in Florida

I am SOOOO looking forward to that day!

I strategically hung two bat houses in my back yard. No mosquitoes and I’m saving about $100 per season on not needing to buy and hang mosquito traps.

Wasps are the resident nuisance here in Southern Ontario right now. No frost yet.

That’s not going to happen in Florida.

“Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance, With the stars up above in your eyes, A fantabulous night to make romance ‘Neath the cover of October skies. And all the leaves on the trees are falling To the sound of the breezes that blow, And I’m trying to please to the calling Of your heartstrings that play soft and low…”

….and no mowing the lawn!

We still are infested with skeeters and flies.

Maybe not outside. This is the time of year they find their ways indoors! Ugh. I patched two stink bugs and one creepy million-legged thing just this morning. Bleagh!!!

We have year round Poli-ticks here in Californication !!!

But we now get ladybug season. Not nasty, but still a nuisance. They are all around outdoors and want to come in whenever a door is open.

Except for the ones that are trying to move indoors for the winter. Stinkbugs, I’m looking at you…ew.

Arlo, Janis — Best consider that aspect of a move to Florida (?) in addition to snakes, fire ants, high humidity year-round and, as mentioned before, hurricanes. Having lived in (on?) the Tejas Gulf for a decade, I can attest to the humidity, hurricanes, and bugs. Snakes were no bother, but only three seasons (Warm, Hot, and OMiGawd) temded to wear me out.

And I’ m reminded of the Global Insect Apocalypse we’re experiencing.

>

So why my plants are full of caterpillars?

During the late afternoon when the back of the house is in full sun, the bugs congregate on the siding and search for a way into the house. Mostly red and black bugs, but a lot of stink bugs as well.

Tell that to the stinkbugs, box elder bugs, and ladybugs that want to take up residence in our house!