Day One Hundred and Twenty-Five

The cap-a-tilla

And so continues the Conley pest problem. First, maggots. Now, caterpillars. The maggot infestation was our fault. This time, that's not the case. We're convinced that they're cold, and that's why they keep slipping through the small crack in the bottom left corner of our front door. And yes, I said because it's cold. That's not a typo. It's been quite brisk these past few weeks, and maybe they're getting sick of it? In the last 4 days, we've found 5 caterpillars, all green and over two inches long, creeping along the linoleum of our entrance. Normally they hang out on the hard surface, but not this speedy dude. He had wiggled all the way onto the carpet before my screech spooked Adam. After Adam's nerves calmed, his curiosity took over. He trapped the to-be-butterfly into an empty beer bottle. And who'd have guessed it: caterpillars can't crawl backwards! So our guy was officially stuck, and Adam was pleased. He studied our "pet" for a while, leaving convinced that maybe they don't like alcohol after all. But Adam wasn't done with his science project and decided to take the caterpillar outside for further inquiry. From inside, all I could hear was hairspray spraying, a salt shaker shaking, and keyboard cleaner freezing. He came back with the facts: caterpillars freeze when you flip the can upside down and spray it with keyboard cleaner. My husband is a caterpillar killer. And I don't know how I feel about that. 

As for now, we have a piece of folded up paper blocking the small crack in our door. We'll see how it holds up. If tomorrow we find another, I'm thinking bug bomb.