ice capades

so, roxann inspired me to blog about my hatred of....palmettos bugs.... 3 years ago, we moved to ohio. we left sunny south florida with it's swaying palm trees, humidity, sticky boiling hot cars, sun faded furniture (for idiots like me who place it in front of windows), crystal blue swimming pools which we never went in because it was too dang hot to leave the comforts of the AC, my favorite critters: sun bathing lizards; and my most hated enemy-the palmetto bug. they lived everywhere. two things you could always count on creeping around your house. lizards who got startled and ran the wrong way while you were entering the house and palmetto bugs, which likely entered their posh hotel riding on the coat-tails of concrete block cave dwellers.

on one of the moving trips my husband made up here in the middle of a snowstorm in early 2005, my step brother, who is an orkin man, thankfully stepped up to help joe unload. during the unload, which was mostly stuff that came from our storage unit and had been in there for several years at this point, they all noticed these dead palmetto bugs (for those who dont really know the term, think of a big fat 2" COCKROACH cuz thats all it is) lying on the floor of the truck. step-bro, in his infinite orkin wisdom, thought this was the motherlode! he was excited! he started picking them up and putting them in a ziplock baggie and had planned on taking them to the shop for all the orkinites to poke and prod.

later, in warm depths of my mom's house, everyone was sitting around chewing the phat around a hot roaring fire. step-bro decides to reach in his pocket and check on his prize when he starts feeling a curious wiggling sensation - he pulls the baggie out of his PANTS POCKET and holy s--t! THEY'RE ALIVE! ALIVE I SAY! everyone starts flipping out. and that, folks, is why they say the cockroach is the only thing that will survive a nuclear (or nucular for those from bush university) winter.

as mentioned to roxann, i gave these up, for field mice who on occasion decide my house is a pretty cool place to be...which leads me to tomorrows post. my dog.

oh and PS - the picture above of the DEAD palmetto-roach was taken just a few short months ago in my backroom. this one, had apparently crawled up into my memoir basket (while in florida obviously) and musta forgot it was hiding. i had brought my basket in to sort thru old photos, and he fell out. gross.

pss - they think if they hide, you cant see them. theyre so stupid. one time one was running across the wall and decided it was going to run and hide behind a glass plate i had hung up on the wall. my red glass plate. my CLEAR red glass plate. can i just say how weird looking this roach was trying to hide under a red clear glass plate?

psss - did you know palmetto bug scat is as big as mouse scat? yes - it looks nearly identical too.