I now know the downside of living in a French house: bugs. There are bugs everywhere in here! The reason for this is that there are no screens in French windows. Hardware stores do not even sell rolls of screen should one want to protect themselves from the pests that freely enter their house.
There are insects of all kinds in our house: moths, house flies, spiders, dandy long-legs, the occasional cricket, and many insects that I cannot identify. I do have two cats that should be helping me with the infestation, but they are unreliable. In the beginning they made half-hearted attempts at squashing bugs, but now they could now care less. That leaves us to do the dirty work. During one weekend, we killed over fifty flies in our house! I am not sure whether I spent more time killing, or washing the smeared guts off windows and walls.
Lately there has been a mysterious insect biting/stinging us during the evenings, leaving large welts on my arms. I just shudder at the thought of what is crawling into bed with me.
Thankfully, there are not many mosquitoes in Pau. We have only seen two to date, and they are scaled-down versions of those found in most of Canada. Unfortunately, one of two was in our bedroom while we were trying to sleep. It buzzed in our ears all night long, conveniently hiding when we got frustrated enough to turn on the lights to try and locate it. I felt as though I was camping, and had failed to jump in the tent and zip the door fast enough to avoid letting in mosquitoes.
As we approach the end of summer, I suspect my insect killing days will be coming to an end for this year. I will miss the long, warm evenings, but I certainly won’t miss the deluge of insects in my house!
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