Fehmeen and I have a somewhat spotty history when it comes to dealing with insects. As previously chronicled in this very blog, we have a tendency to allow an irrational fear of our eight-legged friends to influence our occasional interactions with them. Does anyone remember the Sunnyvale Cockroach Incident when I fell flat on my ass from absolute terror? You can look it up in the archives if you want a laugh. Or how about the San Carlos Mosquito Episode when Fehmeen had to yell for my Italian Man Servant to exterminate a teeming swarm of invading bloodsuckers? That one is on the record in the archives too.
As far as Emma is concerned, she talks a convincing game. She has this book about bugs and she enjoys asking everyone she sees if they like ladybugs or worms or ants or spiders. She is able to identify them in her book by sight and even professes to love them herself.
Well my dear Emma, that is fine in theory, but not so fine in practice.
The other morning when Lhito was getting me dressed, I spied an Incy-Wincy Spider climbing up the wall. She was cool with it from a distance, but she was a little less enthusiastic about an up-close and personal meeting. Emma high-tailed it out of there in order to get her Gama who returned armed with the Dust-Bust. Not five hours later as she frolicked about outside in our backyard, she had her second close encounter of the day. As she sat to rest upon a cement step, she happened to glance down to the ground below. Emma began to howl like a banshee who had just seen a ghost. Crawling up the gray concrete block was the world’s most monstrous slug. Poor Emma was paralyzed with fear. Fehmeen swooped in to rescue her from any immediate and pressing danger while the IMS (Italian Man Servant) relocated the encroaching critter.
In light of this tale, the next time someone asks Emma where she gets her fear of bugs she will no doubt answer with a one word quote: “Genetics.”
The Adventures of ALS Boy 
The house has been warm so we’ve had the windows open. Last night I was watching TV and I look down and the cat is playing with something and upon closer inspection, it’s an earwig (ewww). I grab several Kleenex and go to try and pick it up when the cat takes a big old bite and eats it. I made the ‘ewww’ noise and the cat looks up at me with the a ‘what?’ look. Suppose it is a chemical free option…
Soon to be spider season up here. We get hundreds of huge garden spiders. Harmless, the boys will choose one (usually close to the back door) to feed to see how big it will get. Also cool is the baby spider clusters. Poke ’em with a stick and watch a hundred or so spiders scatter.