A Trifecta of Creepy-Crawlies

(We're still removing drop clothes but never fear, we'll post pictures of our painted bedroom soon. In a meantime...)

I know that houses have bugs. Especially homes with basements and yards. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Now that the weather is warming up, all the icky critters are coming out of hibernation and invading. Here's what we're up against. If you have any suggestions about ways to prevent or get rid of them (preferably non-poisonous, since we have cats), leave a comment.

1. Stink Bugs

I know they can't hurt me but they lurk in the folds of window curtains and fly at me like they're about to dive bomb me. The cats are completely uninterested in attacking them (hard shell must make them rather unappealing as dinner) and squashing them supposedly makes them stink (I wouldn't have the guts to do it anyway). I can handle them in ones or twos if my vacuum cleaner is handy. They make a satisfying "thunk" when I suck them up. Nonetheless, they scare the !@#$ out of me and I would rather prevent them from entering my house. They seem to be concentrated on the top floor (when I opened the door to our master bedroom the other day to paint, 5 or 6 of them were there to greet me) and I've seen a few on the main floor, so I don't think the basement is their entry point.


2. Spiders
(I was going to post a picture here but just looking at the images made me shudder...)
We've had a lot of ordinary-looking small to medium sized spiders on our main floor lately (D tells me they are small to medium sized. I think they are enormous and horrifying). They like the bathroom a lot, which is unfortunate since I am the first to go in there in the morning and the last few weeks there has always been one or two there to greet me. Most scary are the ones that hang down from the ceiling or door frame, since I can walk right by them (or INTO THEM!) without realizing they are there. If they are on the wall, at least I can keep an eye on them. I've also almost stepped on one randomly wandering around our dining room. It's enough to make me wear hard-soled shoes all the time. D has pointed out that spiders actually kill the bugs I hate so much, but I don't care--I want them out.

3. Ants

I noticed some of our honey, hardened over the winter, had left a residue in our spice cabinet and attracted a few ants. Even though I cleaned it up and scrubbed out the rest of the cabinet, counter, and sink, we have a few ants crawling around our kitchen sink all the time now. I can't figure out where they are coming from--thankfully, there are so few that we don't have a marching army. They are definitely concentrated in our sink with a few stragglers on the wall and window behind the sink. Is it possibly they could be inside our sink/garbage disposal? It's probably more likely they're getting in through the window. I thought I remember hearing all sorts of organic ways to get rid of them but now I can't seem to find any of them.


That's not actually all the creepy-crawlies we have, but if I included the others, I wouldn't get to use the awesome word "trifecta" in my title. Though we haven't seen them yet this season, I expect the following will be joining our family shortly:

Spider Cricket (alson known as a camel cricket or cave cricket):

Again, I know they can't hurt me but they are the reason I live in fear of the basement and always turn the light on when I go down there. I know they're getting in through the crawl space and other spots that aren't well sealed, but we can't figure out how to seal them. Fortunately the cats like these little guys (we see a lot of detached legs on the carpet down there) but if I'm alone in the basement, I am too squeamish to squish one--especially because they like to jump at me.



Tiger Mosquito (what is it with animals pretending to be other animals?)

These big guys can bite through clothes--even denim--and can't be stopped with bug spray (either the lawn kind or the skin kind). Since mosquitoes seem to consider me a tasty treat, I will probably just stop doing any yard work or gardening once these critters wake up. I am trying to convince D to buy me a completely screened in patio like they sell at Lowes, so I can go outside occasionally.


Post your solutions to these disgusting animals here. Hopefully the pictures did not cause too much distress. Believe me, searching for them on the Internet was no picnic for me. Oh the things I suffer through for my blog.