Two weekends ago, hubby took Kaia out to the "Spooky Forest" behind the apartment complex. They didn't go far and they didn't go for long, but they brought back an army of ticks. Deer ticks, lonestar ticks and some sort of tick I've never seen before. We spent that evening picking ticks off of both of them and off of me. We spent Monday picking yet other ticks off and cleaning with tick killing chemicals from top to bottom to get rid of the blasted things. Come Tuesday, I figured we were relatively tick free. Yeah, that was so not the case. Sis found a tick on the Little Princess's head and we started the tick hunt all over again.
Thursday morning, hubby woke up with his leg numb all the way up to the calf. He figured it was just asleep and went about his business. By Thursday afternoon, it was alternating between numb and painful and his foot seemed to be getting the worst of it. He pulled his shoe and sock off and lo and behold, a monster tick was having a foot feast. By the time he got home Thursday night, it wasn't any better. He was still bleeding where he had pulled the tick off, he was still hobbling like his foot was asleep and the thing was quite obviously infected.
A trip to the doctor later to have it checked out revealed the he had cellulitis from the bite. We didn't figure he had a tick specific infection, but they wanted to check for ehrichliosis. So far, we're assuming he doesn't have it since we haven't heard back from the labs as of yet. But ugh! Ticks.
Anyway, that was just the beginning of Operation Invade. The ticks handed out Party flyers (Bring Your Own Blood Optional) to the insect kingdom because on Friday morning I went out to the balcony to enjoy the scenery and this hideous bug that looked like a cricket with a hairless tiny human head (I'm serious!) was staring at me from the far side of the table. Staring. Just staring.
It was the creepiest thing ever so I happily gave him rights to the balcony and took my butt back inside to grumble about being intimidated by a cross breed bug. (Bugs 2, Humans 0). Come Saturday, we had green flying things with clear wings that look like no kind of moth I've ever seen before, visiting. Come Sunday, we had two new huge ticks in the floor and spiders dropping from places on the balcony that they shouldn't rightfully be dropping from. Come Monday, the spiders put up their own banner somewhere in the house and started moving in. Come Tuesday, I stopped counting the varieties of bugs that have pitched tents and grabbed pitchforks.
Big bugs. Small bugs. Bugs that fly. Bugs that bite. Bugs that crawl. They've either started their own Alpha Beta Bug Fraternity in my house or are using my living room as a killing field.
That's okay though. It's war now. Today, I'm calling out the big guns. Operation Take Back the House (and the Balcony) is a go. Yes indeed, I'm knighting The Orkin Man and sending him in to battle.
And then I'm going to sit on my balcony sipping a pretend Mai-Tai and waving merrily to the little blood suckers as they pull a full retreat with saddle bags and tents strapped to their backs.
Let's see how happy the little bastards be then, eh?
