Whenever I get frustrated or wonder about the meaning of life–not so much anymore, not as much as when I was a brooding teenager (I was emo before emo was cool–at least at home!)–I think of the lowly June bug.
You know which bug I’m talking about?
It’s that fat little brown bug with the hard body that emerges from the trees at dusk and begins blindly hurling itself through the air, only to crash into anything and everything in its path. Apparently it is attracted to light, evident by the fact that hoards of them will appear any time you turn on the porch light.
Look at the poor thing.
It couldn’t possibly support that body on those tiny legs. Whenever it reaches its destination the only way it can stop itself is to crash. If I happen to leave the porch lights on, I will hear the pathetic thumps of hundreds of them (or fifties, maybe) hitting the walls and windows of the porch.
They’re also sneaky little suckers. See those little hooks on their legs? They love to cling to your clothes, so you can carry them around without even knowing it. Even though they don’t bite, they’ll scare the heck out of you when you realize one has hitched a ride on you.
It’s hard to believe, but, according to bugfacts.net, these little guys can live up to four years! They live in the ground as larvae for a year and then emerge to wreak havoc on landscape plants and outdoor night plans. They also die in birdbaths, plant containers, and gutters, and smell awful as they decay.
Around here there are many signs of spring–azaleas, dogwoods, robins, bluejays, green grass and weeds, but perhaps the craziest is the June bug which makes its presence known in April. Go figure. Silly bug.
What about you? Do you have June bugs in your neck of the woods?
XOXO
April Coker, Author 