You Gotta Love the South

We have lived in North Carolina for almost 4 years now.  The "upper South" has many things to recommend itself . . . generally mild weather, family friendly lifestyle, and cheaper homes (that have not bottomed out like in other areas of the country.)  However, I don't think I will ever get used to the bugs!  I used to question how college students could make money during the summer selling pest control contracts.  Well, since moving here, I am a firm believer. However, in spite of our pest contract, we still continue to have our annual variety of pest problems.  When we first moved in, we found our basement floor covered in millipedes.  Then, last year we came home from church one day to see that flying termites had eaten through a small area in our garage through to the dining room and had flown in by the hundreds and then died all over the main floor -- I kid you not.  Well, this year, we got to experience swarming yellow jackets.  Last Thursday, we came home from piano lessons to hear lots of buzzing.  I went upstairs and found several flying in my bedroom.  So, I shut the door and told the kids not to go in my room.  A couple hours later, I peak into my room, this time looking in the bathroom, and there were several more flying above our bathtub by the window.  I decided to go to the store to buy bug spray (because the pest control office said they couldn't come until Monday.)  Nathan volunteered to go in and kill them.  So, he put on his winter coat and gloves (as protection) and went in and killed them all.  Paul was coming home from New York that night and kind of laughed at our plight (reminding me of the time when I was 8 months pregnant with Nathan and probably sprayed a whole can of Raid on one cockroach.) He volunteered to go upstairs and vacuum them up.  He was shocked at how many there were -- he decided to count them as he vacuumed -- 167!  We killed 72 the next day, for a grand total of 239!  We haven't seen any since then -- we either destroyed them all or they've learned their lesson.  So much for the pest control contract.