Roly Poly

Living in south Texas means three things, it is hothothot in the summer, people eat tacos and Big Red for breakfast, and it is the land of the bugs. There are huge thumb sized white grubs in our garden, spiders, HUGE stink bugs (because of which I didn’t go out into the garden for a MONTH as they took over near the okra), ladybugs, waterbugs (or more accurately roaches though they don’t like to call them that here and are my least favorite), mosquitoes, millipedes, crickets, dirt bugs, june bugs, july bugs, flies, wasps, hornets, more spiders, outside bugs, inside bugs, and the loveable roly polys.

When we bought this house, we were new to the whole real estate thing, and we didn’t know exactly what questions to ask. And overall, we love our house and feel lucky to be homeowners. However, one thing that should have been made known to us upon purchase is that this house is built upon the ancient burial ground for all known roly polys in the universe. I am convinced that roly polys come from near and far to our house to live their last days and then die. That is the only thing that can explain it. We sweep out piles of roly polys out of the garage constantly. And I just got done vacuuming them out of the window sills. They flock to the back porch, the front porch, the side yard, the garage (they love the garage), around the tree in the back and at night? Our front of the house is COVERED with them, not yet dead. But maybe crawling up the garage door and brick to make some last dusk will, some last dance with fate, or to perform the ancient roly poly death rite before they crawl back into the garage to die.

So the next time you see a roly poly, wish it luck on its trip to a warm garage somewhere deep in the heart of Texas because I’m sure it will end up here, where I will end up sweeping it out of the garage after it has curled up, blanched in a pile with its brothers and sisters.

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