For a long time, I was terrified of spiders and insects in general. I could handle most of them somehow with the vacuum cleaner – but the moment one crawled over me, I would scream. Last night I woke up and felt a bug on my shoulder. I simply picked it up, tossed it onto the bedroom floor and went to sleep again. I didn’t even feel the urge to check what it was. That was the moment I realized that I’m healed.
No expensive therapy, I just moved to the French countryside and had no choice but to deal with it. Here I see more spiders in a single room on a normal day than I used to see in a whole year in my city apartment. They are everywhere.
Of course, that’s part of living in an old stone house, full of little gaps and cracks everywhere. Doors and windows don’t seal properly and on sunny days we keep them wide open to let in the warmth and the crawlers. That’s how one morning after a rainy night a 30 cm long earthworm squeezed itself under the door into our spare room.
Another time a cute leopard slug greeted me on the guest room wall (don’t tell this our guests). In the city I never had a slug in my flat, here it just happens.
Fascinating is, that these little intruders change with the seasons. In the summer the house centipede with its million feet is my main enemy. They’re the fastest creepy crawlers I know and even run on walls, very scary.
House centipede captured with my Snapy*.
In autumn every insect tries to get into the house. In winter we find sow bugs, but of course bugwise it’s the best season. Spring is the time for stink bugs and fire bugs. Luckily fire bugs prefer to gather outside in the sunshine, where they are actually quite fun to watch.
Spiders remain loyal companions all year round, I have not yet found a season they miss.
How to handle creatures with more than four legs.
The thing that helped me cope with all these creepy crawlers is my “Snapy”. It´s a little box on a stick that let’s you catch bugs and spiders without getting too close. We regularly bring it as a gift to others because we like it so much. It also prevents the stains on your walls from smashing insects. You can find it on Amazon*.
*Affiliate Link