Birds and Bees

It's time to talk about the birds and the bees...Not THAT talk! I sincerely hope that your parents have already had that discussion with you. I'm talking about the weird animals and bugs that call this strange land home.

When we lived in Oregon the worst "bug" you could have in your house was a wasp or ants, down here that would be just par for the course. Spiders and cockroaches are basically everywhere. The spiders are awful; huge daddy long-legs, black widows, those nasty big brown spiders, and of course, my friend the tarantula.

Remember this guy? 

Thankfully for my heart and nerves, these big ones don't come out in the open very often and are pretty docile unless provoked. No worries from me, I don't like being within 10 feet of one. If I had had a gun at the time...

Cockroaches have become the bane of my existence! It is true that they would be the only living things, besides Keith Richards, that would survive a nuclear holocaust. Thankfully, our house that we bought is on a concrete foundation so that seems to help keep the population down in the house.

Not the best picture of a cockroach, but it will do.

My other hated pest is the scorpion. They are creepy and scary and make my skin crawl! The joke in our house when we first moved in was to never step into a dark room until you turned on the light because we were constantly finding scorpions. After research, found out that they LOVE cardboard (moving boxes), dirty floors (I was in the process of cleaning the house still), and tall dead vegetation (which there was a ton!). We have taught R to not touch ANY bug he sees because of these bad boys. The sting supposedly feels like a wasp, but I don't feel like finding out!

The sound they make when skittering on the cardboard about makes you wet your pants!

Then there is this lovely bug, which I have only had the pleasure of coming into contact with only twice thank GOD!

This is the American version of a camel spider, and are relatively harmless, just really super creepy! They like the dark cooler parts of the house, but all of these bugs have turned me into something of an OCD cleaner, even more than I was before, if that can be believed.

There are fun creatures down here. My neighbors have turtles that live in their yard and T is always finding lizards like this one:

A horned toad. T has also found lots of little lizards, but they are waaaay too speedy to be caught.

The amount of doves that are down here is crazy! I always thought that doves and pigeons were the same, and they are to a point. The only difference that I have seen is that the doves are pretty and not nearly as annoying.

One bird species down here that I don't like at all is called a Grackel (I think that is how it is spelled). These birds are annoying and obnoxious like you wouldn't believe! Imagine a cross between a Magpie and a Starling. Not pretty at all. They are kind of aggressive as well. I've been dive-bombed in parking lots before. All I want to do is shoot them all, but I'm sure its highly illegal and they are probably protected...*Sigh*...

These are just some of the creatures down here. I'm sure that the longer I live down here the more I will see. I'll keep ya posted!