Not to mention how many millions get bitten every year and don't die--I'd rather gamble on a mosquito bite than a black widow, which only kills 2 people in the US a year.

Definitely the way to bet. My uncle was lame for life due to being bitten by a black widow as a child, and they said he was lucky to have survived at all.

Emily, is your post in the right thread?

I am terribly disorganized for someone who has a library degree and who's job is all about organizing information.

"If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" Einstein's desk: [link]

Wait, isn't natural selection part of OUR argument?

I suspect this person thinks that natural selection means humans (white, christian humans, preferred) at the top of the righteous heap and doesn't understand that success for any animal is only the ability to reproduce itself.

::looks down at expanding abdomen::

Hey! I'm a success!

Ugh. This morning is stupid.

but treehouse camp sounds unbelievably cool. Is it as excellent as its name?

It is truly excellent. Although the treehouses do not, in fact, require actual climbing of the trees, but are cabins on stilts nestled in the trees. Nomenclature issues aside, it is seriously fun. Lots of nature stuff, hiking, fishing, teaching the kids how to identify plants, animal tracks. Then all the usual camp stuff, as they're on the same campus as the other summer camps, just way off in the woods. But it's way chill compared to them, lots of hanging around the fire and shooting the breeze. I always love teaching the girls survival skills stuff. They come out of there so jacked up about it all.

With your assurance, I am unworried.

Hee. I didn't meant that to come out unduly snarkily. It does have a specific meaning, albeit one that is difficult to capture all the nuances, as often is the case with slang. Generally, feeling "somehow" means something along the lines of unease, discomfort you can't place, uncertainty.

We get skeeters in our house here and it sucks, but it's nothing like either Hawaii or Ohio.

Testify. We are pretty blissfully free of most bugs here. You can sit comfortably on your deck without getting eaten alive. Hey, Kat, did you guys use mosquito punks to repel the little suckers in Hawaii? I have some pretty vivid memories of watching that coil burn down out on my grandmother's lanai.

Ahem. What post?

Oh damn. This is not my week for posting, is it?

Liese, yeah, for the most part the bugs are few and far between, but then there's scorpions and bonus rattlesnakes to consider.

I've gotten to blacklight for scorpions twice, which was utterly cool. I've decided I'm not scared of bugs AS LONG AS I CAN SEE THEM and can deftly avoid touching them. Then I'm all "Coool!"

Really cool video - On a sushi conveyor belt

My favorite bugs are the meat-eating wasps around us. Hubby and I like to go to friends' cook-outs and put out a slab of steak or whatever, then watch the wasps come up and start stripping the meat. They very tidily snip off a sliver of meat, roll it up, then carry it away. Our friends' invariably freak out, then settle down to watch. We've spent hours feeding the meat-eating wasps.

I once got a dramatic 9-year-old to stop freaking out about bees by pointing out that they're only flying around her because they want to see if she has pollen, and if she lets them sniff her without panicking, they'll see she's not a flower and go about their business. After a bit she very proudly sat still while three bees examined her then flew off. Of course, her mother ruined it by running up and flapping at the bees, shrieking. But the girl gave me a look of "My mom is over-reacting, isn't she," and I nodded. So at least one girl was hopefully spared from incipient Fluffbrain.