Can I haz bugz plz?

To put it short, we're having a bug problem. Out front we uncovered a subterranean yellow jacket nest. It was right outside our frontdoor and was causing a number of problems. They stung my mom's ankle yesterday morning, while she was doing some routine weeding out front. They also stung our new dog, Jack, but that doesn't matter as much because I don't like Jack. That's another rant for another blog post, however. I use the past-tense when discussing the yellow jackets because one whole can of Raid later, they appear to have moved to the great bug hole in the sky.

Walking out my garage yesterday morning, a pine cone fell at my feet. At least, I thought it was a big pine cone, but it was actually a huge mamma-jamming cicada. These bugs are huge and disgusting, and they're absolutely obnoxious with their noises. However, they aren't the most huge and disgusting bug in the yard anymore....



The award for most creepy gigantic bug goes to the natural predator of the cicada, the cicada killer wasp. These are the biggest freaking wasps I have ever seen.



Wikipedia claims they are solitary creatures, but there are dozens of them in my back yard, burrowing little holes in the ground all around the path between my driveway and the back door to my house. You can't go walking around outside there without getting swarmed, although people assure me that they do not sting. That's good to know, but I'm definitely not going to put the theory to the test anytime soon.

Besides all the bugs, this has been a good weekend. It was a little boring at times, however. Kara hung out with us for a few days after Geoff left, which is good because she's a good guest to have: Polite to a fault, creative with her cooking, and willing to put up with the unique brand of shit perfected by my brothers and I.

Tomorrow starts another week of work. However, next week my boss Susan is away on vacation and I'm in charge of the testing work we've been doing for the past few weeks. Hopefully it's not too hard a week.

The images from this post are from Wikimedia Commons.