Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs

WARNING:

The following post may be deeply disturbing to individuals who have issues with insects and spiders!!


Now, first of all, let it be known that we have NOOOOO love for these particular insects called, of all things, Love bugs. They have all but halted any productive work being done on the boat. The worst part about them is that they love the scent of any and all types of chemicals. One of their favorites happens to be paint of any kind, whether wet or dry (especially Amerlock). Above is a small chain plate that I had just painted on the rail about 5 minutes before the picture was taken. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of our struggles with them for the entire month of May.

Another example.....

It is really obvious in the above picture, the areas that I had prepared and painted only about an hour before. Keep in mind, what you see here, is after Drake had followed me around while I was painting, pulling the love bugs off with tweezers.

It was at this point that I about broke out into hysterical crying mixed with maniacal laughter!!! The worst part was sanding them off the next day..... Not only were some still alive, but the sanding left behind the outsides and insides of the ones who perished. EEWWWW. It was Tamer's mom Sherron's first experience with helping us while she visited for 2 weeks.

Aaaaawwww, now we are to the fun stuff!!!

Although prolific in the area, we do not have any pictures of Black Widows, only Brown Widows. Both of which have the same distinct egg sack, and both we have had to destroy many times. The above spider was inside a small coil of rope in the basket of Tamer's bike. She had about 5 egg sacks that also had to be crushed.

Here is another one found a couple of days later, on the underside of a wood scaffolding frame.

Same one as above, but without a head, used to show the hourglass marking on her belly.

A beautiful Eastern Lubber Grasshopper.

We found this little velvet ant on the ground outside the trailer one morning. We put it inside a bug container to take pictures of her, but after we found out more about it, we let it go.

We encounter about 5 new insects a day done here, now that Summer is approaching. It is an environment that none of us are used to, so we find it really fascinating!