Bugging out with Orkin
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Orkin Ecologist for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I'm not a fan of bugs – pretty ones, ugly ones, and especially gross ones. We occasionally have fruit flies and they're more annoying than dangerous. And when the weather is changing (usually from summer into fall or winter), we'll end up with insects in our basement. In our old apartment, we used to get ants and it was so much work to get rid of them. (I still know people who have problems with ants in the summer. I still don't quite understand what drives them into kitchens during the summer.)
I have a policy that unless you are my cat or my child, if you don't pay rent or pay part of the mortgage, you cannot live in my house. Insects are lucky that my husband is a little more sympathetic. If there's a random moth in the house, he'll capture and release it. He's more likely to help a spider get out of the house alive than I am.
Orkin has created a website called "The Ecologist" to help teach people like me a little more about the science of insects. They actually have an info graphic on the scariest and deadliest bugs in the world which had some interesting information on it. Such as that cockroaches are fairly harmless, though they can sometimes carry diseases. (And really, I think cockroaches are the grossest of gross bugs.) Cicadas are also rather harmless. They're just crazy-loud. They invade our area every few years and I've had to run through swarms of cicadas before. Their humming is so loud and a sound that sticks with you.
In our area it is not uncommon to come across a black widow spider while gardening (I remember my grandma finding one under her deck. Scary stuff, especially if you have a child running around your yard on a regular basis.)
I prefer to focus on the pretty "bug of the month" on their site, like the Monarch Butterfly. If all bugs were in the form of butterflies, I think I could handle them a little more.
On "The Ecologist" site, Orkin is celebrating insects and their unique qualities. It's a great educational resource and if you have a science-lover, you should definitely check it out. I'll have to look into it more as my boy grows older and wants to know more and more about bugs. I'm hoping he's more into butterflies than spiders, but at least I know where to turn regardless of his interest!
Want to learn more? Check them out the Orkin Ecologist on Facebook or Pinterest!
