Aisha Azar

Dear Gang,
We have these bugs here called June Bugs. They are about 2 inches long, oval shaped and striped green and black. There seem to be WAY too many of them this year and they like to stay on my back patio and on my back door screen, the lower half of which has a screen guard so the dog won't break the screen if she jumps on the door.
Bugs creep me out pretty much, but usually these go away when the sun hits them. Today one got caught between the screen and the screen guard. I worried about him for around a half hour because I was afraid he was baking in there, the poor thing. Then I went out to try to rescue him. I loosened one corner of the screen guard, went and got a thin willow branch and sort of pushed him out against his will. He had amazing strength to hang on to the screen with his feet, but I finally got him out and he landed on his back of course.... and I am not lying about this.... HE STARTED SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It sounded like strangled clacking, like "KHA, KHA ,KHA, KHA".... It was horrible. I stood there in terror, finally got up the guts to approach him with the willow branch and then as soon as he got hold of it and turned himself over I sort of flung the stick away from me and ran like hell into the house, checking carefully to make sure he was not ON me somewhere.
I need a drink....
Regards,
A'isha

Mosaic

LOL! Aisha, your description of compassion mixed with terror, sounds so funny, but when you are creeped out by something I can understand how you must have been feeling. Cockroaches ( the big monstrous Asian ones) are the terror of my life, but I don't have any compassion for them, a wee June bug especially if it began screeching at me, would bring forth compassion. I would actually pick him up and pop him on a plant or something. Little bugs I am OK with, it is just the big creepy cockroaches. I hope you and screeching June Bug are now OK ... and after that ordeal, I think more than one drink would be in order

To explain my terror of BIG cockroaches:me - taking a shower on a very hot, ultra humid day ( every day like that)when we lived in Indonesia, I feel something tickling my foot, look down and this hideous, huge ugly, creepy cockroach was struggling out of the plug hole, and the ultra long feelers were tickling foot - Me: - scrrreeeaaammm, bolts out of shower, slips on tiled floor, crrraasshh! ( still screaming quite a blood curdling scream) cockroach begins trying to flex wings.. scream gets louder, hubby rushes in carving knife in hand ( I recalled later he was very white- kind of odd on a Chinese man) , I stutter cockroach and point to terrorizing culprit - hubby bursts out laughing, and sits on floor comforting dripping wet wife, I yell at him to get rid of the beast, so he picks up the nasty and removes it from bathroom ( he said he disposed of it somewhere, I don't want to know) by this time I have gathered my wet and naked dignity ( and a towel) around me and inspect the plug hole for more of that creatures relatives. Hubby returns with a piece of fine netting and forms a grate over the hole, so I won't have any more unwelcome intruders, I complete shower, hubby continues to laugh and splutter on and off for hours Mind you I joined him with the laughing because it truly would have been fodder for some crazy comedy! Since that time cockroaches are no 1 on list of creepy terrors! Snakes come 2nd. On and due to fall on floor, I sported a big black bruise for days on my right shin.

I still giggle at the scene, especially hubby's white face and wild knife brandishing stance as he bounded through the door, to rescue his wife who he thought was was being attacked and was letting out her last breathe in a blood curdling scream!
~Mosaic

Aisha Azar

Oh MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the part where it was ON you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ICK! ICK! EEEWWWWHHHHH. I have seen some Asian roaches and they are BBIIIGGGG
I no longer shop at the Safeway near my house because of a HUGE roach that was standing around on one of their pillars one day. I am good with snakes. For me its mice and rats!
Regards,
A'isha

Aniseteph

Yeurghh, screaming bugs, that is horrible, it's making my skin crawl just thinking about it. I'm not keep on large insects at all, especially the ones that disguise themselves as leaves and things.

We had to dissect cockroaches in biology at school once - fairly gross but as nothing compared to dissecting a worm, I really could have managed quite well in life without having to know about the insides of a worm.

Reen.Blom

Dear Mosaic,

I sincerely want to thank you for writing this, gosh you made my laugh so hard! I especially appreciate your creative use of smileys!

Did you ever consider writing a book? It would be awesome!

Aisha, I think screaming bug must have been SOOOOO creepy! EEEEK

Here, have a hug *hug* and some chocolate cake.

__________________
Join WORLD BELLY DANCE DAY! www.worldbellydanceday.com

khanjar

No big bugs really in England except the nasty biting May bug , a type of cockchafer which plagues May when they emerge from the ground and wreek havoc!!! But still in England we had an infestation of Pharoah ants, nasty creatures!

The usual sugar laced traps they ignored, these things wanted meat, chuck them a piece of ham, and they swarmed over it, and they were good at biting too. The other thing they were keen on having was water, and they duly wrecked our water filters we had installed to clean the incoming mains water, they became blocked with dead ants.

The origin of that infestation was tracked to a neighbour who was being sent bush meat from relatives in Indonesia.

Somewhere in England, I think the South East, there are scorpions, I have yet to see one of those.

__________________
I am a dream to some...and a nightmare to others.

Reen.Blom

May bugs bite???????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now Im scared forever!

__________________
Join WORLD BELLY DANCE DAY! www.worldbellydanceday.com

Mosaic

Reen, I have many, many funny stories from my 11 years in Indonesia. I suppose I could write a book, but I am both too lazy and never seem to have enough time to sit and concentrate on such lengthy writings.

Khanjar, the ants you spoke of as coming from Indonesia sound like what the Indonesians call 'Fire ants' that is because they swarm and bite like heck and your skin soons feel s like it is on fire, they are nasty, nasty things, I inadvertently stood in a nest of them in the garden one day, did I move out of there fast or what, and quite a few choice expletives erupted from my mouth, they are jolly difficult to brush off as well, and they are impossible to get rid of from your garden. They are everywhere in Indonesia. The different types of ants in tropical countries are incredible, the common little black ant was something unbelievable, no matter what you did, they would be continually marching up walls inside and out, through cupboards, in gardens, just everywhere. I use to wage this never ending war against ants ... I was always the loser, and they will still be merrily marching through homes and gardens over there. Along with fire ants, black sugar ants, brown ants and the annoying flying ants, that had the ability to find invisible cracks and get into the house in droves the minute the lights went on. Thank goodness they were seasonal, the flying bit, they shed their wings after a few days, and took on being foot soldiers, but the flying season lasted about a month, so you were driven totally batty for a month.
~Mosaic

Aisha Azar

Dear Reen,

Thanks for the cake and the hug!!!

Dear Khanjar,
Sounds awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We seem to have a lot of large insects up here in the Northwest, though you would not think so because it does get pretty cold. My dance company sponsored Mark Balahadia one Fall and he had noticed I always walked around instead of directly under the porch light. There was a pretty darn big spider living up by the porch light and I did not want her to drop on me!!!! Mostly she did not come out during the day, but I was taking NO chances. One evening Mark was sitting on the porch swing and he came in the house after awhile with a strange look on his face and said, "That is a #%$@$%#$ HUGE spider!" When she died at the first frost she fell off her web and landed on the porch. Even though I was terribly afraid of her, I had gotten kind of attached to her on some weird level as well. I did a little funeral service for her and swept her off into the plant bed.

Regards,
A'isha

Aziyade

LOL -- We get those in May, which leads everybody to wonder why they haven't been renamed MAY BUGS.

My mom and her friends (as kids) used to tie small pieces of twine around one of their legs, and take them for "flys." You can toss them in the air, hold the string, and watch them fly in circles around you ... if you have nothing better to entertain yourself with.