Earwigs, Spiders and Ticks. Oh My!

This year our house seems to be infested with nasty little brown bugs called Earwigs. They look like this:

Creeps me out just to look at the picture! I'm sorry for doing that to you but I need someone to understand how gross these things are! I'm not usually too squeamish about bugs but earwigs seriously gross me out and they are everywhere this year! I didn't even know what the nasty things were called when I first found one on my shower curtain about a month ago but they have certainly made themselves at home since then.

Earwigs can grow to be over an inch long but they are flat and can hide in the smallest spaces. They like warm, dark and moist spaces. This afternoon when I moved the dog dish three earwigs ran out at me. Last week I opened my laptop to find one taking a nice, warm nap on my keyboard. But the last straw was Saturday when I opened the washer to put a load of laundry in and a herd of earwigs came scurrying out like miniature cockroaches. Yes, I said a herd. What do you call a dozen or more bugs moving in a group?

I don't usually like using chemicals around the house but I went out and bought the biggest thing of bug killer I could find - it seriously looks like one of those things the professional exterminators use, with a nozzle and everything. I sprayed it all over the outside foundation and around the inside foundation in the basement. I hope that will help the problem.

The spray should help with the brown spiders I've been seeing too. I know spiders are good for killing bugs but these guys look a lot like Brown Recluse Spiders which are extremely poisonous and I'm not going to risk any of us getting bit. I was going to show a picture of a brown recluse but isn't one bug picture bad enough? I Googled them and it made my skin crawl so I'll spare you the horror this time.

What about the ticks you ask? Well, I warn you, the following story is not for the faint of heart. Read at your own risk.

Saturday morning I went to the kitchen to make some cereal for Allison. On the way, I felt an itch on my cheek and when I scratched it I realized there was something crunchy there. I thought, with embarrassment that it was some misplaced Alfredo sauce from the pasta I'd had the night before (I have a talent for getting food in odd places when I eat). I scratched my cheek again in an attempt to scrap the "sauce" off but it was stuck. So, I pulled it off and looked down to see what it was. In between my thumb and forefinger was a little, squirmy tick.

"Ahhhhhhh!" I screamed and threw it across the kitchen. From the next room, Paul screamed in reply and came running to see what was wrong.

"A freaking tick! (except, I didn't say freaking) There was a tick. On. My. Face. I threw it." I explained as I anxiously ran my fingers over my face and through my hair. Paul didn't say anything as he started scanning the floor for the tick. He quickly found it and doing the manly thing, he used a wad of paper towels to pick the tick up so he could flush it down the toilet.

We found another one on Bella (the dog) on Sunday - in her ear to be precise. I'll spare you the details but let's just say it had obviously been there awhile. What do you do for ticks? We have given Bella flea and tick treatment every three months like the directions say. Although they also say it can be used once a month if the problem is really bad. So, Bella got an extra treatment on Sunday and will probably get more a month from now.

Why are the bugs so bad this year? What do you do to keep them from invading your home? HELP!