Inchworm Invasion

I know I promised more than a week ago to post about Kawaii-Con at our library, but the inchworms are a current, overriding concern in the forefront of my mind. A Clear and Present Danger.

Two springs ago, there were several green or green-and-black-striped inchworms crawling around the big flowerpot near my front door and around the deck. I was charmed, and sang the "Inchworm Song" (from the movie musical "Hans Christian Andersen") to them.

Last year they were rather more numerous, but I could deal with them.

This year there are at least a couple hundred of the damn things congregating on and around our front door, on our deck, and generally on the outside walls of the garage apartment where we live. They're also fond of me. Whenever I come in from outside, sooner or later I feel one crawling on the back of my neck or spot one on the front of my shirt. I love nature but these guys have worn out my fondness for them big-time. (I should add that they like Ken too. He comes into the apartment scratching and fluffing out his hair a lot.)

The clincher was yesterday, when I went out back to get my snow shovel to put in storage, and the darn things were all over the shovel. About a hundred (I am not exaggerating) were making themselves at home all over our recycling bins too. That was it. This morning (no jury duty today, and I'm working evening shift) I went out with a bunch of rags and a bucket of water and cleaned them off the recycling bins (tomorrow is recycling day and we have a lot of stuff). I probably drowned a bunch of them but at this point, I don't care. I've had it with them.

I sat down to do this post, and--you guessed it--an inchworm was crawling up my sweatpants.

No, you aren't getting any pictures. These things are just too disgusting to me at this point.