The BugFest That Was This Weekend

I swear I encountered every freakin' bug that lives in my yard, my parents' yard, and on the dogsitting walk this weekend. I had to bugspray myself good to just sunbathe.

You name it;

Mosquitos (poor Riley, if I hadn't coated his buttocks with Burt's Bees bug repellent... he sorely needed it while taking a poop in the woods. God they're ferocious!)

Earwigs

Big juicy black ants

Tiny red ants

Slugs (okay, so they aren't "bugs" but they are pests)

Flies

Horse flies

Deer flies

Bees

Wasps

Some other very large flying stinging creature that I did not care to investigate closely

Grasshoppers

Moths

Midges

Gnats

The striped bugs eating the squash and pumpkin leaves

Japanese beetles

Some other kind of beetle that was black

And spiders, tons of those too;

The Bad Ass Big Yellow spiders (BABYs)

Daddy Long Legs

The zebra-striped jumping ones

The brown nonwebbers that scuttle frantically when startled (usually found around the soil)

Tunnel spiders

And of course, the garden orb spider as seen below.

It's a wonder I wasn't carried off and sucked dry.