When you build a house on land previously uninhabited by humans you are invading creepy crawler habitat and you must be prepared to share. After the house was completed and I was cleaning it to move in I found many scorpions and quickly sent them on to the great beyond. One of my first nights in the house as I was retiring to my bed I felt something crawling on my shoulder. I laid very still for a second trying to decide the best move to make, smash it, grab it or turn on the light to see what it was. My reflexes went with "grab it and fling it". I did just that but not before it could sting me. It hurt like a son of a gun. I screamed, jumped up and turned on the light to look for it, scaring the whits out of my husband with my shrill scream. Our carpet in the bedroom is patterned and dark making it difficult to see anything that might be lurking about, therefore I found nothing. My arm was hurting from the shoulder all the way down to my finger tips. I could only pray it was not a poisonous spider. I thought my arm was going to fall off for about 3 minutes and then the pain began to ebb and it was gone. I never found that creepy crawler but it has worried me since.
I can vacuum one day and the next day there are spider webs in every nook and cranny. These little tiny harmless spiders are very happy in my house. If I don't vacuum for several days I can always locate their lairs by looking for little piles of pill bugs and other dead insects. Every once in a while I have to turn my sofas upside down and vacuum under the skirts and the bottoms. I once found a young black widow spider preparing her nest beneath the skirt of a sofa. We have many exterior doors and it is impossible to make them tight enough that these creepy crawlers can't get in.
Last night I scooped up a caterpillar the size of my pinky finger making it's way across my kitchen floor. I just can't figure out how it got in. A few nights ago I took a picture of the tiniest scorpion I have ever seen. The picture is below. I can handle little tiny spiders and even scorpions but the amazon centipedes send chills up my spine. One night we had just turned the tv off preparing to turn in for the night. I was in the kitchen cleaning up when my husband yelled, "Oh my God". I already knew what it was without even asking. Only an amazon centipede could elicit such a sound from him. He grabbed a pillow and covered the bugger until I could arrive with a fly swatter. His picture is below also. I just cannot imagine stepping on one of these. They are fighters when they sense danger. My neighbor saw one on her bedroom wall shortly after she moved in and was preparing to go to bed. After killing it, she slept with her lights on and one eye open the entire night! I have read that they can do real harm when they sting you, giving you flu like symptoms.
One has to be very careful opening doors at night. Many times a scorpion has been lurking around the top of the door jam and fallen into the house. I stepped on one recently in my pantry. At first I thought it was a sticker or burr that had been brought in from the grass but looking closer I saw it was a scorpion and it was squashed from my weight. At least I didn't have to bother trying to kill him but he did get a whack on the bottom of my foot which hurt for about 5 minutes. I soaked my foot in cold water and sprayed it with lavender water! It really works. Two days ago I found an ant bite on my elbow and one on my torso. I don't know how they got there and I never felt the bite but I had a little pustule in each place which is my reaction to ant bites!
I know we have invaded their land but I really wish they would just stay outside. I woke up yesterday morning to find ants all over my clothes in my cedar closet! I had to put everything out into the sunshine and put boric acid in all the crevices of the cedar boards and base boards to deter them. I make sure I don't hang anything that I have spilled food on so I'm pretty certain they like the fabric softener in my clothes. I remember once when I lived in the city in an established neighborhood finding ants all over my toddler's bed. He had been wearing a sweater that I removed when I put him down for a nap, which I laid on the foot of his bed. Apparently he had spilled something sweet on his sweater and it attracted the ants His bedroom was on the second floor. The leader of the platoon of ants must have sent them on a march from the flower bed, up the side of the house and through a crevice in the window. Had I not gone to check on him he would have been covered in fire ants!
Last spring my husband came to me with a little pustule on his elbow that looked like an ant bite. I just opened the top of it so it would drain and told him not to worry about it. I few days later his arm was really hurting and it was red and infected with a red line going up the inside of his arm. I was very alarmed and told him we had to go to the emergency room because it looked like a spider bite. You would think living in the country that the local hospitals would recognize a spider bite and know how to deal with it. Think again. These docs were baffled. They had no idea what it was or how to treat it. The first ER one hour west of us gave him IV antibiotics and sent him home. The next day the wound was much worse, the pain going up and down his arm with his entire arm red and swollen. Even the lymph glands under his arm and in his neck were swelling. We decided to try another hospital one hour east of us. These docs decided to try to open it and dig inside, looking for what I don't know. Then they hooked him up to another IV and administered more antibiotics. After a couple of hours we headed home, he was nauseous and had chills. He spent the next couple of days, very sick and in pain but it appeared to be getting better. Lab tests from both hospitals revealed nothing. Looking back we decided that a brown recluse spider must have bitten him when he was bringing wood in for the fire place. Over a year later a scar still remains. I still can't figure out why they didn't give him cortisone. Seems to me it would have speeded the healing and lessened the inflammation.
I purchased some copper scrubbing pads and cut them in little pieces which I placed inside all the weep holes on the outside of the house. That is to discourage larger insects from crawling through and getting inside the walls or attic and making their way into the house. I try to keep all my drains closed to keep scorpions from coming up through the drains which they certainly do. It takes real effort to remember to do that though. Clothes are never nonchalantly tossed on the floor for fear of a spider or scorpion crawling inside for a snuggle. We hang everything. I have come very close to placing my hand on a black widow spider on several occasions when reaching to turn on an outdoor faucet. I check all the ceiling corners of the patio on a regular basis for black widow spider webs.
Not long ago I was cleaning around one of the carports where we had stored some bags of soil. I had lifted a couple of bags and was about to lift another one when one of my dogs walked over to the bag and stood over it. I could not figure out what he was doing but later realized he was protecting me. Somehow he knew there was a huge black widow spider under that bag. I asked my dog why was he doing that, of course he didn't answer but I had a premonition of danger. I inspected the bag more closely and camouflaged with the print on the bag was a very large black widow mama. Her body was as big around as a nickle. I grabbed the shovel and smacked her a good one, then turned and thanked my dog! I wish I had thought to take a picture of her before I smashed her but then again I didn't want to chance her running and hiding while I was fetching my camera.
Below is the tiniest scorpion I've ever seen. We found it in our bathroom and I sure hope it's mama is not lurking nearby.
This is the guy I stepped on in my pantry.
I can vacuum one day and the next day there are spider webs in every nook and cranny. These little tiny harmless spiders are very happy in my house. If I don't vacuum for several days I can always locate their lairs by looking for little piles of pill bugs and other dead insects. Every once in a while I have to turn my sofas upside down and vacuum under the skirts and the bottoms. I once found a young black widow spider preparing her nest beneath the skirt of a sofa. We have many exterior doors and it is impossible to make them tight enough that these creepy crawlers can't get in.
Last night I scooped up a caterpillar the size of my pinky finger making it's way across my kitchen floor. I just can't figure out how it got in. A few nights ago I took a picture of the tiniest scorpion I have ever seen. The picture is below. I can handle little tiny spiders and even scorpions but the amazon centipedes send chills up my spine. One night we had just turned the tv off preparing to turn in for the night. I was in the kitchen cleaning up when my husband yelled, "Oh my God". I already knew what it was without even asking. Only an amazon centipede could elicit such a sound from him. He grabbed a pillow and covered the bugger until I could arrive with a fly swatter. His picture is below also. I just cannot imagine stepping on one of these. They are fighters when they sense danger. My neighbor saw one on her bedroom wall shortly after she moved in and was preparing to go to bed. After killing it, she slept with her lights on and one eye open the entire night! I have read that they can do real harm when they sting you, giving you flu like symptoms.
One has to be very careful opening doors at night. Many times a scorpion has been lurking around the top of the door jam and fallen into the house. I stepped on one recently in my pantry. At first I thought it was a sticker or burr that had been brought in from the grass but looking closer I saw it was a scorpion and it was squashed from my weight. At least I didn't have to bother trying to kill him but he did get a whack on the bottom of my foot which hurt for about 5 minutes. I soaked my foot in cold water and sprayed it with lavender water! It really works. Two days ago I found an ant bite on my elbow and one on my torso. I don't know how they got there and I never felt the bite but I had a little pustule in each place which is my reaction to ant bites!
I know we have invaded their land but I really wish they would just stay outside. I woke up yesterday morning to find ants all over my clothes in my cedar closet! I had to put everything out into the sunshine and put boric acid in all the crevices of the cedar boards and base boards to deter them. I make sure I don't hang anything that I have spilled food on so I'm pretty certain they like the fabric softener in my clothes. I remember once when I lived in the city in an established neighborhood finding ants all over my toddler's bed. He had been wearing a sweater that I removed when I put him down for a nap, which I laid on the foot of his bed. Apparently he had spilled something sweet on his sweater and it attracted the ants His bedroom was on the second floor. The leader of the platoon of ants must have sent them on a march from the flower bed, up the side of the house and through a crevice in the window. Had I not gone to check on him he would have been covered in fire ants!
Last spring my husband came to me with a little pustule on his elbow that looked like an ant bite. I just opened the top of it so it would drain and told him not to worry about it. I few days later his arm was really hurting and it was red and infected with a red line going up the inside of his arm. I was very alarmed and told him we had to go to the emergency room because it looked like a spider bite. You would think living in the country that the local hospitals would recognize a spider bite and know how to deal with it. Think again. These docs were baffled. They had no idea what it was or how to treat it. The first ER one hour west of us gave him IV antibiotics and sent him home. The next day the wound was much worse, the pain going up and down his arm with his entire arm red and swollen. Even the lymph glands under his arm and in his neck were swelling. We decided to try another hospital one hour east of us. These docs decided to try to open it and dig inside, looking for what I don't know. Then they hooked him up to another IV and administered more antibiotics. After a couple of hours we headed home, he was nauseous and had chills. He spent the next couple of days, very sick and in pain but it appeared to be getting better. Lab tests from both hospitals revealed nothing. Looking back we decided that a brown recluse spider must have bitten him when he was bringing wood in for the fire place. Over a year later a scar still remains. I still can't figure out why they didn't give him cortisone. Seems to me it would have speeded the healing and lessened the inflammation.
I purchased some copper scrubbing pads and cut them in little pieces which I placed inside all the weep holes on the outside of the house. That is to discourage larger insects from crawling through and getting inside the walls or attic and making their way into the house. I try to keep all my drains closed to keep scorpions from coming up through the drains which they certainly do. It takes real effort to remember to do that though. Clothes are never nonchalantly tossed on the floor for fear of a spider or scorpion crawling inside for a snuggle. We hang everything. I have come very close to placing my hand on a black widow spider on several occasions when reaching to turn on an outdoor faucet. I check all the ceiling corners of the patio on a regular basis for black widow spider webs.
Not long ago I was cleaning around one of the carports where we had stored some bags of soil. I had lifted a couple of bags and was about to lift another one when one of my dogs walked over to the bag and stood over it. I could not figure out what he was doing but later realized he was protecting me. Somehow he knew there was a huge black widow spider under that bag. I asked my dog why was he doing that, of course he didn't answer but I had a premonition of danger. I inspected the bag more closely and camouflaged with the print on the bag was a very large black widow mama. Her body was as big around as a nickle. I grabbed the shovel and smacked her a good one, then turned and thanked my dog! I wish I had thought to take a picture of her before I smashed her but then again I didn't want to chance her running and hiding while I was fetching my camera.
Below is the tiniest scorpion I've ever seen. We found it in our bathroom and I sure hope it's mama is not lurking nearby.
This is the guy I stepped on in my pantry.
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