Why would anyone move out to the country, get five acres of beautiful land, and then spray the foundation of their house every month with pesticides for seven years? That's exactly what happened to the house we bought. So, even though it's been two months since the spraying stopped, beautiful bugs, spiders, monstrous mosquito hawks, milliipedes, hover flies, and bees fly around the house and die everyday. We find their lifeless bodies everywhere. Sometimes, I try to rescue the ones that are crawling around in a fog of poison and take them far from the house, hoping somehow they will be rejuvenated by good air. I suspect that they die anyway, that the pesticide probably destroys their nervous system, but I do it anyway.
Take this beetle for instance. I found it in front of the house on the cement. I took it to another part of the yard and told it to stay away for its own good. Weirdly though, it showed up again, fluttering its wings and lying on its back on the cement. I don't know why they don't listen to me. I'm usually very persuasive.
I suppose the thing that really bugged me the most though was this: a dead caterpillar. Somehow that seemed worst of all. Not even a chance to become the thing it was to become.Why go live in the country if you're afraid of bugs? It makes no sense and the cost to critters is truly unconscionable. We have no idea how long the pesticide stays active. It seems obvious that it lasts longer than one month. We know that insects die everyday, but this wreck of bodies definitely seems out of the ordinary.
About the previous owners of our house: Some people are really jerks.
*********************************************************
I wrote this Memorial Day piece five years ago. My father survived the wars, but he carried the scars with him the rest of his days.
