Sept 09 2021
We have the loveliest weather imaginable. High 20s during the day, but only sometimes, and cool evenings and mornings. There is a dew on the grass in the morning and thanks to it probably, new “crop” of mosquitos. Most swallows have left already so no one to eat mosquitos in amounts they did. I must say they are not as blood thirsty as summer mosquitos, so not all is bad. Only female mosquitos bite; they need nourishment from blood for eggs. They are also bigger than males and it seems that the little male mosquitos are mostly around right now.
I noticed again the phenomenon that took place last year this time. Flies getting somehow into upstairs of the house and then sitting inside the house on insect screens. It didn’t worry me last year because the room I use now as my bedroom wasn’t ready yet, and I didn’t look inside it often; it was ugly and smelly. Seeing all those flies there now made my skin crawl. About 30 slow moving dark, fat flies sitting on the screen of the relatively small window looked like a scene from a horror movie! I wanted to know how do they get inside every afternoon, so went outside to investigate. There were swarms of flies sitting on brick walls of my house, looking as if they were sleeping in the sun! I panicked, and being a worry prone woman, immediately imagined a once alive creature rotting in my attic. Most of old houses have small openings in their walls here and there that flies can easily squeeze through inside, no wonder that they get in easily, I thought. I did then what I usually do, googled. “How can I get rid of large amounts of visiting flies without killing them?”. The answer popped up with a few top links. Turns out “my” flies are called cluster flies. They sun themselves on buildings in spring and autumn and look for places to overwinter, because unlike short lived house flies, these fellows live up to two years. They don’t eat rotting flesh or poop, like other flies, they prefer fruit, don’t spread germs and disappear once cold days come upon us. In summer they live outside and are not interested in house smells. They sometimes appear in winter suddenly from wherever they hide, but it didn’t happen here yet and hopefully will never happen. So, after I learnt about them, I made a hole in the netting of my bedroom window to let flies out. The netting is old and tore easily, but I had to push flies through the hole to the outside. They didn’t come back because there is no sun or extra warmth in late afternoon in this particular window. I like to learn, especially about nature, and this was something which made me happy. I thought I had an unpleasant problem on my hands, but I have no problem, which is always nice to find out.
I had a text two days ago, that the little raccoon I rescued has died. It made me very sad because he had a horrific experience right at the beginning of his life and landed in the great place, photo above, where he could live happily till the end of his days. His autopsy has shown that his kidneys and liver were damaged. When I saw him last time with the other two rescued raccoons he was the smallest. When he joined them initially he was the biggest one. He probably didn’t grow as fast as the other two because of his health problems. RIP little angel.
Lakehaus Lebehn 