Special Sumter Friends

I know who you're thinking of and you're wrong. This is a post about those "friends" that I'd just rather not know much about. These include the red ants, the spiders and those weird worms that live here.

First, we recently had some significant experiences with these friends of ours. A little bit ago I took the kids on base for an appt. Well Evie likes to run around once out of the van and to preempt that I told her she had to stay on the curb while I got Lizzy out of the van. I said, "stay right there, don't move." She did great until, while on the side of the van where I couldn't see, she started jumping up and down and yelling. Well, anyone who knows my daughter knows this happens pretty much 1oo times every day so I ignored her until I brought Lizzy to the other side. Of course, this time she had good reason. The exact spot I told her not to move from was a string of red anthills! I hadn't even noticed and obviously neither had she. She was jumping up and down and crying because they were all over and biting. She had on open sandals and little shorts and the ants were taking advantage.

So I stopped messing with Lizzy, told Joe not to move (scanning the place before I left) and then picked Evie straight up in the air and brought her down hard enough next to me that she lost her balance. Then I did it again and stripped off her shoes. I got every one of those little suckers off my baby girl. (ok, not baby, but mommy instinct don't care how old she gets) We checked every inch of her and overall, she had only two bites! Thank goodness. I don't think I could've handled more. It was my fault she was standing there. And she had listened so well. I was grateful though to hear her quote me when she said, we leave them alone, they leave us alone. So she does listen, she gained a good lesson, and she's no worse for ware.

Honestly of all the time we've spent here and with all the hills in our yard and the way both the kids like to mess with their "homes," I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Of course, if I went outside with them it'd probably happen a lot.

Our next friend was a large spider in our garage. I've been really careful about my cleaning and junk just sitting around because insects in warm places end up inside a lot easier than other places (courtesy knowledge of a mission). So when I found a rather large spider (and I mean with legs out, he was as big as my hand) I was concerned. I'd done enough research when we first got here to know the major ones to stay away from. Well, this one looked not happy. He was content where he was, but the kids go in the garage near where he was to get their bikes and toys at least a couple of times every week. So, it couldn't stay there.

My philosophy about bugs is if it's in my space, it's my choice. If I'm in their space, I give them plenty of it. Well, most bugs I just put outside. They don't really want to be inside anyway. But I wasn't 100% sure if this was a bad one or not. So I called my reliable home teacher. I know - how pathetic right? NO! My experience had taught me that God made some spiders big for a reason. The last one that was close to this size in my personal experience could jump at you and send you to the hospital! (again, thanks mission) So, I felt a little stupid, but not enough to ignore a possible danger to my kids.

He was so sweet! He came over, looked at it, and .... stepped on it. Yep, that's it. No scurrying, no jumping, no nothing. And of course, at the time he came to look at it, it was colder so the guy had curled up nice and little. Now, I felt stupid. He was great though. He validated that what I had was a wolf spider (definitely not the same look as the ones in Spokane), but that they're often mistaken for the local Brown Recluse which is extremely poisonous. He said they're almost identical. Ok, so no points on the scale for overreacting just a bit, but awesome points for being like most other people and not knowing the difference. (honestly, I looked. I couldn't find a positive id on the net).

So, if you think I'm super girly when it comes to spiders, you think that. But I regularly kill beetles, cockroaches, flies, bees, wasps, and lots of other stuff. I even kill spiders. Big spiders get special consideration just like big stinging insects. If it can come at me or move things on its own it gets more space and thought before I just kill it or think I can kill it.

Finally, the weird worm of Sumter. This worm is so odd. When we first got here it creeped me out big time. I thought they were spiders. This thing hibernates like bears or something, but in trees. Not a big deal right? Nope, it makes a spectacle of itself by making these huge webby nest things in the trees. It kills the whole branch, stem, or even a whole tree (it was a smaller one). It's weird, gross, and I've never actually seen the worm! It's hard to miss though when you see them.

So there you go. Our special Sumter friends and how we cope. It's just another part of life in a place that I don't always understand. That's why we leave home though right? New experiences are priceless, just don't tell that to Evie till she's much older.