The Mayfly - Bane of My Existence

These yellow-winged insects are called mayflies. They resemble drawings of prehistoric creatures with horns and forked tails and nasty little eyes. That's why you will not be seeing an up-close picture of them today. That's how much I love you.

I wouldn't trade my ponds for anything, but that is where these bugs breed. That's why we have them in multitude on the property. Apparently we're a lovely mayfly nursery - lucky us.

You don't really see the flying around, mostly because they attach themselves to every surface of the house. They seem to love our front door in all its pretty maroon and glass. For a while I let them stay there just because they're God's creatures, but it didn't take long for me to get past that.

If they weren't such revolting-looking creatures, it might not be so bad, but I can't help thinking about horror movies where the infestation starts innocently enough, and then small children are being carried away to the mountains.


Mayflies only live for a couple of days in their adult form. This is a pretty good thing, in my opinion. But before those two days, they shed their skin like a snake. Then you have twice as many little things clinging to everything - including the screen to the deck.

Now, this is where I draw the line. The patio door is the largest window we have and it overlooks the ponds. This view is one of the major reasons we bought this house. I refuse to have my joy stolen by little winged creatures that stare at you and twitch their little forked tails.

So, when the rains were coming yesterday, I carefully (well, not really) brushed them all off. I thanked God for the robin that I saw dining on one of them. The rain carried off many of the rest.

Now, I feel no shame or guilt for this because they would have been gone today anyway. I'm sure the Lord created them for a reason, but it wasn't to be decoration on the side of my house. I'm just encouraging them to get out and explore the world in the short time they have here on earth.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

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