Ruth hates bugs. It doesn’t make any difference what kind. If they crawl or fly, she hates them all. I’ve seen her drown a single daddy longlegs with a can of spider spray. Its legs scattered hither and yon from the powerful blast, and the little bulb of a body floated upon the excess pool of spray. She’s relentless.
The bigger problem is they like her. They seek her out. We’ve got some tiny, tiny, tiny ants in our bathroom right now and she’s already gone through two cans of ant spray to no avail. They seem to like our toothpaste, so Ruth bought a lock box for the toothpaste and our brushes. It’s slowed them down. They appear to be discouraged but haven’t given up. Our Florida pest control people have laid out what they hope to be a successful plan of action. We just have to be patient. When it comes to critters, that’s not Ruth’s strong suit.
Several years ago, we went out on a sailboat with some friends. The sun was setting, and the sun shone beautifully on the water. As the sun set, the wind died down and became completely still. The still waters caused the sailboat to stop and interfered with what was a beautiful ride. That’s when the mosquitoes showed up. They were all over Ruth like stink on fish.
There were four of us in the boat, but they only took after Ruth. A dark cloud crawled over her. The rest of us were bug free, but poor Ruth was getting swarmed. She swung and swatted to no avail. Finally, she huddled in the bottom of the boat, and we piled life preservers on top of her. We made our way to shore as fast as we could, but by the time we landed she had dozens of mosquito bites. The remaining three of us were bite free.
Another time, shortly after we had gone to bed, a mosquito did a flyby near Ruth’s ear. The buzzing drove her crazy. She crawled under the covers and issued my orders. “You’ve got to kill it! It will bother me all night!”
I got out of bed, turned on the light, and maintained a silent vigil, looking for the pesky bug. I hoped it would be drawn to the light and be an easy target. It wasn’t. I swung and swatted for several minutes before he went down. I said, “I got him, turned off the light, and climbed into bed.”
Ruth poked her head out from under the covers and said, “I don’t believe you! Show me his little carcass!”
We’d been married long enough to know I was on the losing end of this discussion, so I got out of bed, turned on the light, and began my search. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked for a dead mosquito, but they’re difficult to find. They blend into most every landing spot. It took about ten minutes, but I found him on an Afghan that was lying beside the bed. I picked him up, presented the carcass to Ruth, got her approval, turned off the light, and climbed back into bed.
Ruth has had several run-ins with bugs over the years. I don’t believe any were more problematic than others have faced, but when they’re yours they’re more impactful. Strong feelings rise to the top, and Ruth isn’t shy about letting others know where she stands. That’s just how she rolls.