My skin is crawling...

It is 12:20 AM Sunday morning and I have just convinced to the 1st Child and the Wild Child to go to bed. You see, we have this little problem. They are called earwigs and they are everywhere! In the past two hours I have personally disposed of 7 of them from in my home. Two of the them from said girls' room and I may have forgotten to mention the spider. They are worried the "pincher bugs" are going to get into their beds and pinch them. This may be a valid concern, since last night the Rocket Scientist was sitting in bed minding his own business when he squealed like a little girl because an earwig "pinched" his leg. Ewwwwwwwwww, that means it was in my bed too!

So last year we hired an exterminator and didn't notice any difference in the amount of pests but did notice the $60.00 less a month in our checking account. We had the service for a whole year and I can't say that I think it did anything. So what does a mom do? I want my kids to sleep, I want to sleep, I want my skin to quit crawling. I really don't want to see any more of these little "monsters" crawling up my walls. I certainly don't want anymore in anybodies bed!

My poor little girls are scared out of their minds. I have checked and re-checked their room. The Rocket Scientists gives them the "you-are-so-much-bigger-than-them-what-are-you-scared-of" speech. I have used the "they-are-looking-for-water-and-filled-the-bathroom-sink-with-water" logic trying to convince my pretty little girls that all the earwigs will go there instead of their room. They aren't biting. (No pun intended.) They want to know what the pincher bug will do after it gets a drink. So then I try the "those-bugs-only-like-it-warm" approach. I tell them this as I turn down the air conditioner. This starts to work. They have decided to sleep in the same bed to comfort each other when my too smart for any of us to get any sleep little girls realize that the Wild Child's bed will be really warm with two of them sleeping in it. Then the drama continues as a new bug decides to climb up the wall in their room. (Come on! Can we catch a break here?)

Earlier today I went to our local Intermountain Farmers Association and purchased some insecticide to try and control our obvious infestation. I finally convinced them that all was going to be OK as I sprayed the window frame in their room. The 1st Child was still a bit nervous as she watched the earwigs in the frame twitch. She thought for sure they were going to survive the poison. (Hopefully, that will prevent any new comers in their room tonight.) Still this is not quite enough to make to very tired little angels want to go to bed. I finally allowed a light to stay on in their room. As I walk back into my room the Rocket Scientist comments, "I hope that doesn't back fire." This is when it occurs to me that now it will be easier for them to see any new bugs that might decide this is a good night to torture the human occupants of this home.

So far, so good! Knock on wood, or whatever else I should do to continue in the direction of sleep instead of delirious little girls running from earwigs.

If any one has any ideas on how to deal with this issue..... I'm all earwigs......um, I mean, ears.

It is 1:35 AM now. I just went back into their room to see if they were asleep and turn out the light. Of course I took my camera with me to take pictures of any and all earwigs brave enough to come out and crawl about. This is what I found instead: