Catepillar Infestation

They're everywhere! We find them covering our front door, on our clothes, in our clothes, and even, ...in our bed! I really hope they're the kind that turn into butterflies so that there will be some reward for what I consider a trial.

Just yesterday we were at an Army picnic with the students from Rob's school. It was at a park and everyone was on blankets and camp chairs. There were trees around and so every few minutes a catepillar would drop down on someone. Being squeamish no matter how friendly the bug, I found this to be very frustrating. When I felt a hundred tiny legs crawling up my leg as I ate my lunch, I closed my eyes and begged Rob to remove it. Another husband sitting nearby looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That catepillar is not going to hurt you." However, having dreams about catepillars climbing on you, is mentally painful. Perhaps this was more a result of the dead catepillar we found in our sheets this morning.

By the end of the picnic, we were all calmly removing them from each other as though it was completely normal to have them crawling all over us.

The kids had the best time. Perhaps God made catepillars so enticing to children to help with population control. The whole picnic, about 30 kids never left the sand volleyball court because there were so many catepillars to play with. They built sand castles to house them and collected enough of them to fill a whole sand village. What the catepillars thought of all this, I am not sure. On the one hand, they didn't seem to mind being held and petted and talked to, but several of them met an untimely demise from all the handling. Avery in particular played in that sand for two hours before even thinking about finding us. When he did finally come over, he had a fist full of catepillars, mostly of the dead squished variety, clutched in his chubby hand.

They continue to provide entertainment at our home. Everytime the kids go outside, all three of them have a catepillar pet within five minutes of being out there. They never seem to tire of letting them crawl all over their hands and arms. I can hardly watch! Does anyone know how long catepillar season lasts? A few butterflys would be a really welcome change!