Diana and Susan, Don't Read This

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 3:31 am

Last weekend here I was minding my own business. I had had little sleep. I was up *early.* Writing at my computer, I heard a rustling somewhere nearby. I thought it was right outside the window. It finally sunk in that the rustling was in the room with me!

I got up and went to the far corner of the room just in time to see what looked like a lizard's tail disappearing into the bowl that was full of dried rose petals, and a pitcher was in the bowl as well.

Oh grosssss! I had to decide if I was going to go hunting or forget what I had seen.

I could not imagine working in this room knowing a lizard could run across my bare feet at any time!

So I armed myself with a big oversized fexible book (the better to smash him with) and put on shoes and also had tongs, believe it or not! I figured he would decide if I killed him or captured him with tongs to toss him outside. I also thought (I think I thought too much- I was overtired) I had better get my route to the outside door clear in case I did catch him because I'd be sprinting for the door with my eyes closed!

By the time I was prepared, I started poking among the dried rose buds after removing the pitcher- and he was not there!

OK. Now I would have to keep shoes on at least for the rest of my time up that day/eve/night, and hope he dried up over time.

I was careful in the room, which is a room I spend the most of my time in. 3 days went by. I stopped wearing shoes. I did not forget him- I just figured after 3 days he'd be dehydrated.

Then Wednesday I was answering the phone, which is over in that corner and something rustled behind the Thesarus on the bookcase!!!!

Oh Gawd- he was still alive and behind the Thesarus! Luckily my work on the magazine was done! I decided to not get too near the answering machine or phone - but to lean way over to check these every day. There was no way I could catch him amongst the books!

Thursday I bought new lamps and decided to move a piece of furniture. I got the piece turned and ready to slide behind the couch. I went over to that corner of the couch and reached around the arm to grab it to pull it forward into the room and grabbed a hold of that %^$#*&^ Lizzzard!!! He had been inmyhand!! (I can still feel him! )

I mean I yelled out! "EEEEP!" Then I yelled "What are the ODDS!" I knew what I meant. What were the odds that in a room 21 feet by 14 feet with an attached dining room too, that the dratted lizard would wind up right smack dab on the one place on my couch that I would grab to move it??&&&^%$!!!
BTW: I sit on that couch sometime every day!

I killed him! I smacked him- I cut his head off! And tossed him outside.
Little bugger!
I told you Diana and Susan not to read this!

1bigsteve · Post by **1bigsteve** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:18 pm

Kat, you meannie! That poor little lizard. Now don't you feel guilty?

-1bigsteve (o:

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:55 pm

No actually he lived longer than he should have once he got into my house.
He had quite a few days to figure out where to go. He never went farther than about a 4 sq. ft area. That's pretty dumb.

Can lizards *smell* a cat nearby? Maybe he knew the other part of the house had a creature who would rip his throat out!

I think *Sweety* knew he was in here.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:57 pm

As long as you don't go twisting the necks off of pigeons in the barn!

Kashesan · Post by **Kashesan** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:31 am

Lizzard Borden took a whack
while hiding from the rampant Kat
when she puts shoes on in the night
Lizzard Borden-fight or flight!

The theasaurus weren't enough
To hide behind when things got rough
though filled with wisdom through and through
a stegasaurus would make do

k

dasdeeboot · Post by **dasdeeboot** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:02 pm

RayS · Post by **RayS** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:36 pm

Lizards generally are beneficial as they eat up bugs.
A gekko on the ceiling removes mosquitoes and flies, etc.

Living in harmony with nature?
Of course, anyone who owns chickens knows that a fox must be hunted and killed. Too bad for the kits.

Haulover · Post by **Haulover** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 8:34 pm

i'm sympathetic. i presume there is no pesticide you can put around your house to keep them out. you've always delt with them one-on-one, and they seem so full of variety. i think the sucker frog leaping out of the toilet was the most horrific. and also the snake you tried to kill by backing over it. i think i would probably do about what you do. but i wonder if there is a way to launch all-out war against them in your yard before they can get inside.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:59 pm

Sorry, Kat, I had to read it. I feel your pain, you don't like creepy crawlies in the house and did what you had to do. I feel the same way about certain bugs, yuck!

If it comes through okay, this is the mental image I get of your lizard and the sofa.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:03 pm

Watch out, Kat, here it comes!!

theebmonique · Post by **theebmonique** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:16 pm

OH NO....HERE IT COMES AGAIN ! ! !

Tracy...

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:56 am

Jeesh you guys! I had to read this topic again in order to post my newest adventures with gigantic wildlife here in Florida that gets into my house!

Well, last night I was cleaning the litterbox. I take it into the garage to fill it, and took the old trash bag outside to the garbage pail.

By then I was finished and came inside, and walked over to the cats' water bowl to fill it after washing my hands. I leaned over the bowl, which is snuggled in a corner against the fireplace bench, and a Huge Palmetto Bug Fell Out Of My Hair!!!
It actually knocked me over from shock!

I was crouched, and fell over, staring at the thing. It had ended up on it's back and it was a contest as to which of us could gain our feet first! I did, and smashed him! EeeW! It had been on my hair! And fell out on the ground!
Diana and Susan- don't read this!

He was literally about this big- And they can Fly!

1bigsteve · Post by **1bigsteve** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:00 am

Good thing you don't live in New York, Kat! In "Gypsy & Me," the author described a run in he had with huge cockroaches or "water bugs" about 2 inches long back in the late '50s. I hear some people used mouse traps to catch them.

Yesterday while I was cleaning my yard guess what I found crawling up my shirt? A Black Widow spider! I quickly served an eviction notice.

-1bigsteve (o:

SallyG · Post by **SallyG** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:41 am

Being on our way to south Florida this Wednesday to live, my husband has warned me about the Palmetto bugs. I can deal with lizards...I can deal with snakes...but bugs...NO! I hate bugs! I once called my husband home to deal with a praying mantis that had somehow gotten into the house. And forget crickets and grasshoppers! They send me shrieking from the room!

1bigsteve · Post by **1bigsteve** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:55 pm

I can take the six-legged bugs, lizards and snakes, but it's the spiders that I don't like. Nothing turns me into a marshmallow quicker than a big black spider crawling on me.

-1bigsteve (o:

Debbie · Post by **Debbie** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:58 pm

My husband doesn't like lizards either. We have them here where we live and I am the official lizard catcher. If I would have been there Kat, I would have caught him for you.
When my oldest daughter was about ten she shocked me by coming in the house with a lizard attached to each ear like earrings. I though it was funny after I realized what she had done.
Kat, guess you wouldn't want a nice pair of lizard earrings.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:15 pm

Curiosity got the better of me, I saw this thread had come up again and had to look. Blech, Palmetto bugs! I remember being in Florida one August at a hotel on the beach, when we got up in the morning we had to crunch over all these dead Palmetto bugs that were everywhere! It wasn't until I was older that I found out that they were a form of cockroach.

Kat, if it had been me, the bug would have probably gotten away as the urge to perform the icky dance would have hit me harder than the urge to kill it. Ugh. I've got the creepy crawlies now and feel like theres bugs on me now.

Angel · Post by **Angel** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:07 am

I'm still waiting for my annual fifty lb. spider to give me a heart attack in my house. It happens every year.

Debbie · Post by **Debbie** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:22 am

Angel if you have fifty pounds spiders I don't think I would like to be invited over for tea.
I don't know where you live, but if I did I would sent you a case of Raid or maybe a baseball bat would work better.

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:24 am

Ah yes, the tap-dancing click-click of Palmetto bugs' feet on the tile in the darkened kitchen in the middle of the night, with their B-52 wingspan on flight maneuvers. When I lived in Mayport, Florida in Navy Housing, there was a virtual Rockettes' chorus line of tapping Palmettos high stepping across the floor and in the cupboards daily and around the clock performances. Naturally the spouse was on a 6 month cruise and I was the Insect and Arachnid Slayer. Only because I had an infant to protect did I conquer the Nameless Terrors of the Night and learned, in the end, how to slam a Palmetto at 20 feet with my size 9 1/2 shoe and hit the bug's eye every time. Spiders? Aw shucks, squash 'em with my bare feet! Florida- the land of flowers- and insects and ALL the species of poisonous snakes, and suction-cup froggies, hammerhead sharks, etc. etc. I am now an almost- Yankee- permanently.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:28 pm

Table for 60, please!

Confused baby turtles go the wrong way.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080818/od_ ... ly_turtles

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:05 am

I've had 3 palmetto bugs just today- the rain has driven them in, I think.
I found some Raid. Now my new experience is that they don't die right away so I overspray, but I have found their bodies later in the same room I sprayed them in. (It's odorless spray.) So finally I am content.
I've also gotten less scared of spiders because I've killed so many this year. I think my total so far is about 28.

Oh BTW: It's been raining for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours- ah... you get the picture!

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:57 am

Wow- makes me think of that old commerial for Roach Hotel- "bugs check in but they don't check out!" Don't inhale the Raid, Kat- it's nasty stuff for people too! Just hit 'em with your shoe -makes a BIG crunching noise! Well the weather is glorious here, the temps went down in the 50's last night and today feels like early October. I see old hurricane Faye is twirling around over Florida. I hope she poops out before she rolls up the coast !

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:05 pm

Shoes don't work. I have a pair of flip-flops (the good kind) in several rooms and have grabbed those and almost sprained my finger hitting at the darn things. I have yet to find anything that will kill on contact the first time. I hate using spray, tho- I never have until about a week ago.
I'm tired of crawling along the floor hitting at and missing or merely maiming palmetto bugs.
Harry says to get the plug-in pest protectors. They emit a sound. I might try that.
After living in Florida 45 years, I'm pooped from fighting bugs!

Some terms they have used on the T.S. Fay on the news:
"The houseguest we just can't get rid of..."
"Fay has been tricky, tricky, tricky..."
"She showed up as an unwanted guest who now won't leave."--World News on NBC

And they did a search for any similar storm (that entered and left Florida 3 times) and commented on the one in 1968: "Even she was not as mean as Fay."

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:00 am

It's Still Raining!!!
Live view right now...Orlando.
It's stationary.

At least we're not getting what Palm Bay got! They got 23 inches!

Nadzieja · Post by **Nadzieja** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:33 am

I remember the first time I saw one of those palmetto bugs I thought I was having a nightmare. I couldn't believe the size of it ( can you tell I'm from New England). I was visiting my oldest brother & he lived in naval housing. I ran to the kitchen grabbed the bugspray & was yelling at the thing. (talk about over reacting). The lady who lived in the next apartment came running in, saw me standing on top of the couch trying to spray this thing that was on the floor. Well she just about doubled over hysterical and said "Honey, it's just a little old bug" and proceeded to step on it. When I heard it pop I got queasy. I think I would have dealt better if it was a mouse. I'll take the cold & snow. Of course one of my new friends would be the Orkin guy.

Debbie · Post by **Debbie** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:10 pm

Is a palmetto bug the same thing as a water bug? I grew up in East Texas and we had these big cockroach looking bugs out in the wood pile. We called them water bugs. They could fly too and I was scared to death of them.

kssunflower · Post by **kssunflower** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 1:55 pm

Had these bugs in Georgia too. They're also known as American Cockroaches and a lot of people do refer to them as water bugs.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:19 pm

Yuck, I had a bug incident today at lunch. My boss and I decided to go to a local Chinese eatery and were waiting out front, slightly to one side of the awning. As we were talking I saw something out of the corner of my eye that fell close to me, it was white and looked like a small bit of paper debris or something.

My boss stopped talking and went to brush my shoulder saying, "You have a piece of lint on your blouse.....". Then she started flapping her hand going "Ew! Ew! Ew!". And I'm thinking that some bird just pooped on me. My boss grabbed something out of her purse and flicked my shoulder with it and told me that I just had a maggot on me!!!!! GROSS!!!! We couldn't for the life of us figure out where it had fallen from, we figured it was the small white thing that I had seen falling from above (its a two story building). Needless to say, neither of us couldn't handle having anything with rice and we opted for the rice noodles instead.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:18 am

That's Just Sick Susan! And on the day-after-your-birthday too!

It's Raining Again! Yikes!

kssunflower · Post by **kssunflower** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:55 am

I hope you're safe and dry, Kat. Looks like the rains of Fay are wreaking havoc in central FL.

SteveS. · Post by **SteveS.** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:39 pm

Kat and Stephanie...I hope you guys are safe from Fay and are not experiencing too many problems with all the rain.

Constantine · Post by **Constantine** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:08 pm

I was amazed at how much livelier palmetto bugs are than the water bugs we have in New York. I don't know if it's the climate or whether they're a different species. At least ours don't crawl all over you. Have you tried Combat traps?

As far as lizards are concerned, there aren't any venomous ones in your neck of the woods. The only lizard that might be a danger to you is the Komodo dragon, which has been known to attack humans fatally. It is only found on a few Indonesian islands.

Constantine · Post by **Constantine** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:18 pm

Looks like I may have been wrong! In checking up on the Komodo dragon, I find that one of its relatives, the Nile Monitor, has been introduced to Florida! This one can grow to seven feet!

Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_monitor

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:01 am

Actually there was a monitor let loose full grown not far from here...it was in the news every day but that stopped. I guess he got away!
Now because of flooding, people are seeing fish in the driveways. UGH!
I am high and *dry* altho it has rained every day since Monday a week ago!

TONIGHT!
Tonight I heard a rustling sound in my family room, that I should not have been hearing. I had my 2 cats in view and it wasn't them!
Rustle-rustle-rustle coming from near the artificial palm tree! Rustle...
It was coming from the fireplace!
I looked thru the scree and there was a giant gargantuan humongous ugly sucker frog trying to get out! He had red glowing eyes! I went white...my heart stopped, my breath stopped, my brain froze- I needed help! I grabbed the bug spray and put on flipflops and sprayed him thru the screen. Then I had to run and get twist ties and tie the screen shut in about 100 places. I was twist tying like crazy- I don't think I beathed the whole time, and I was probably muttering to myself. What a nightmare! I saw him again and sprayed him with Palmetto Bug spray. Then resumed tying the screen to the metal fireplace guard, and plugging any holes with tin foil!

Then I celebrated by making peach cobbler! I'm my own hero!

beanbolt · Post by **beanbolt** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:21 pm

I grew up in central Florida and survived all the palmetto bugs and lizards. We once had a tarantula in the house! That thing was huge. I was able to track it down one night by listening to it walk across the ceiling during a power outage. Dad smashed it on the wall with a shoe and we had to paint that spot on the wall the next morning.

You'll see some crazy things down in Florida, and I'm not even talking about the tourists.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:44 am

I was leaving my smashed bug blood on the white walls for a while- like counting my kills. Then I noticed a guest was noticing the smoosh mark on the pocket door in the kitchen so I decided to start washing away the body count!

I've another 2 spiders to add to my toll now, I think I'm at 30 for this year?
I didn't know Fla had tarantulas. I hear about *Brown Recluse*- they are the deadliest.

beanbolt · Post by **beanbolt** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:10 pm

That's the only tarantula I'd ever heard of in Florida. Maybe it was somebody's "pet" (how does that work exactly?) that got loose. Why it came into our house, I have no idea. We had only lived there a few months at that point, so it's possible the people before us had it. Kind of creepy to think it could have been hiding out in the house all that time...watching us from the shadows...

Now I'm in Tennessee and the Brown Recluse is common here as well. I've lived in this house for about a year and have killed two of them inside. After the second one, the house was thoroughly sprayed!

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:27 pm

My daughter in SC has those palmetto bugs. She has arachnaphobia, poor kid. Her husband got one - or more - of those sonic electronic bug killers, like Harry suggested to you, Kat. It worked for them. Every morning, when I went down there last year, there were two or three new dead ones. That "crunch" when you step on them is horrible!

Kat, you didn't say what you used to kill that lizard with. Did you do it with your bare hands?

Your posts are so funny. Poor Kat. Did the Raid kill that horrible frog? Or did you just blind him?

Sorry all of you had those experiences. I would just die if I saw a tarantula in my house. We have the brown recluses in Detroit. Some nest in our mail box. I didn't know they were so fatal. I'll have to read up on it. I knew they were fatal, like eventually, but from reading this thread it sounds like it's maybe fast acting.

I heard that moth balls get rid of snakes. I don't think it kills them, but keeps them away. There is also a product in one of those mail order catalogs like "Miles Kimball" that sells some kind of snake repellant. They do have a product called "Spider Not" that my sister used to swear by.

I guess you could get rid of all your lizards and bugs and frogs, Kat, if you got an exterminator. Most companies want to have you sign a contract where they come out every so often for a large fee. I needed one before for ants and one for a yellow jacket nest. I found an independent guy who just charged me like $150 for coming out and treating the area, and he guaranteed it for one year. Unfortunately, he retired. But if I had to get one again, I would try to find an independent exterminator like that.

I saw a Kimono Dragon at some alligator farm in SC years ago. Horrible looking! I didn't realize they were fatal.

We have only the Michigan Rattler as a poisonous snake here, and they are rarely seen. We have some huge non-poisonous snakes - the Eastern Fox Snake for one. Geez, is it big. I make my husband kill them. They are a "protected species". They're huge, mean and they bite. It's a wonder those Palmetto Bugs aren't an endangered species.