I don't know whether it is due to the weather changing or what, but we have bugs everywhere now.
Outside the house we have ants that don't build a little mound and call it quits; they dig up everything. If there is a crack in the any pavement it quickly gets rimmed by piles of dirt that run along each edge. Sweep this away, and the ants put it back ten minutes later. Annoying, but at least they stay outside. This is also the time of year that Florida pusley blooms in everyone's lawns, so bees are everywhere too. Which I actually see as a positive since I keep hearing on the news about their population decreasing.
Inside - cockroaches. Ugh. I keep the house clean as possible, but with a toddler and two cats this isn't easy. Plus we still have a half inch gap between the floor and the bottom of the baseboard pretty much throughout the whole house, so the roaches are having a great time climbing around in the walls. Typically I just find dead/dying ones, although yesterday I went to get a paper towel and as I pulled it from the dispenser a cockroach fell from somewhere below the cabinet and bounced off my hand. (Shudder) In Florida we have both American cockroaches and Florida woods cockroaches (aka Palmetto bugs). People are so used to the nickname "Palmetto bugs" that they insist that these aren't really cockroaches, they just look like them. Sorry, no. They ARE cockroaches. But the good news is that according to this guy cockroaches no dirtier than any other bug, and cleaner than most humans, so good news there? Supposedly the best way to get rid of roaches is to get a glass jar with a top that curves in, like a glass applesauce jar, and set it out with a little food in the bottom. The roaches climb in to get the food and then can't climb out. Of course the problem is that you then have a jar of squirming roaches to deal with, which is more than I want to deal with.
Also inside the house are a variety of annoying little drain flies and gnats. They actually are attracted to moisture, not food lying around, although they will take what they can get. We have to be careful to make sure that the tabletop, counter top, and sinks are not only clean but also DRY. Even what we throw away has to be as dry as possible or we get flies in the trash. And if it is too humid we have to run the AC even if it is actually a nice temperature outside. And used dishtowels and washcloths can't be left in a damp pile under the sink. We don't succeed in all of these, but we do enough to at least keep the flies in check.
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