What’s Bugging Me

Yesterday I came home and went outside to let the dog run around the yard. It was a very nice afternoon, 83 degrees with only 30% humidity, (have I ever mentioned my dislike of humidity?) it was a great day! As I was sitting in the old worn chair, I was wondering if by sitting where I was, would I be ruining my pretty flowery dress. (I don’t have many flowery dresses.) The chair is old and kind of leaves its color on whomever sits on it, but then I heard something. What was that weird chewing noise going on behind me? It wasn’t the dog, she was in her own other world, nose to the ground, on the other side of the yard. It wasn’t the boy, he was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t me, I was just sitting there. So what was it?

I had a feeling I knew what it was, I only dodged a few of them on my way to the chair, but I was hoping the insect I was thinking of was just passing by and not embedding itself directly into the newly installed fence. It was inevitable, right? After all I have lost count of how many carpenter bees there are hanging around my house at all times during the summer. We don’t have a lot of wood, but what wood we do have, they seem to find. I just wasn’t expecting them to find the fence so soon.

Sure enough, right where I chose to sit, there was a small pile of sawdust on the bottom support of the fence, and a perfectly drilled hole up underneath the middle beam. He – or is it a she? – was busily making itself a new home. We just declared war on the carpenter ants last week, and I guess its distant cousin, carpenter bee, is next to be battled. The only thing is, no matter how many we get rid of, there seem to be just as many hanging around the next day. *sigh*

I know a few have homes in the deck, and even in the swing set, so I guess from their point of view, there is just a new place in town, and it’s ready for occupants!

I do feel a little bad to have them as enemies, because I think they are what I see pollinating my blueberry bushes. Although, they do make great tennis racket practice, says the boy! This may just bee a losing battle. *louder sigh*

And so ends this season’s WOE with the bugs of Tennessee. (Hopefully those caterpillars don’t start coming out in droves anytime soon!)