So just what does happen to a city Piglet when she’s in the country? Not turning into food, that’s for sure!
Apart from the obvious fact that Baby Piglet has been growing up and been taking up a lot of my free time and that I have returned to work, which takes up all of my day time and most of my energy, we have been slowly adapting to country life.
First of all, the creepy crawlies and all things icky.
I can’t think of one fun “countryside” activity I have partaken in that hasn’t ended up in me running away, hiding from or being bitten by an insect. They seem to be everywhere. I didn’t know I’d have room mates here and whilst I’m trying to adapt and get used to them sometimes it’s just too much.
Spidered In
The Spider
The morning I got up early and decided to make a hearty breakfast, Baby Piglet and I ended up camped out in the kitchen, hiding away from the biggest, scariest spider I’d ever seen. It was seriously huge and I didn’t even need to zoom in on it to take a picture with my phone.
The spider was hanging out at the bottom of the stairs and there was no way I could get back upstairs without going passed it. And do you know how it feels to have a spider looking at you? There was no way I could put Baby Piglet back to bed or wake up Mr Piglet to get him to rescue me.
A route around the kitchen proved useless, I had no spider killer stuff, just pots and pans and a pair of Mr Piglet’s shoes. With some courage from Twitter tweeps and a desperate desire to escape the kitchen
Eventually I plucked up enough courage to hit it really hard with a shoe. A huge wack and it was gone… now was not a time to gently try and get the spider to go outside. Phew!
Punished by a wasp
What’s the best way to be put off eating sugary things or going on fridge raids? Wasps! I tell you, they are the best repellent possible. Last week I helped my self to a mid afternoon snack of apple crumble and on my way to clear the dish away I inadvertently squashed a wasp in my hand whilst picking the dish up. The pain! It took two days for the pain from the sting to go away. Not something I will be repeating in a hurry.
Watch those sleeves!
You would think picking up walnuts from the ground is a fairly harmless activity, right? I mean, what is the worst that could happen? A walnut could drop off the tree in hit you on the head? It wouldn’t exactly make you unconscious now would it? Wrong! Well, not about the walnut falling off the tree, I wouldn’t know about that (and I’m certainly not volunteering to test it).
After a great session and a cardboard box full of nuts, my arm starting itching. Really itching. A look at my arm showed the end of a creepy, hairy (not in the cuddly toy sense) caterpillar sticking out of my sleeve. Urk! I literally ripped off my clothes to get rid of the hairy thing, all whilst shrieking. Mr Piglet wondered what on Earth was wrong with me, I was like a spinning top trying to get my clothes off at the same time, pretty fun to watch I can imagine. He didn’t get to see the caterpillar and I think he thought I’d gone mad until we came inside and my arm was covered in a horrible itchy rash! Yuck!
Not the caterpillar that was up my sleeve (that one was far bigger) but another one I saw in the garden a few weeks ago
What creepy crawlies creep you out and what else should I watch out for?
Ggguuuuurrrkkkk! (That’s all I can say ‘cuz I’m too freaked out. Suffice it to say that those are reasons enough never to move to the country. I can visit for short periods — overnight is tough — but move? Errrm, that’s a no.)
Oh Tanya I was (am?) so much like you! I spent the first couple of weeks here freaking out and wearing long sleves as much as possible. I tucked my trousers into my socks when outside, I was terrified! Thankfully there is so much more here that I love that I don’t think I’ll ever return to Lyon.
Don’t cut the grass in high summer…the ‘aoutat’s are dreadful…microscopic insects that creep into every fold of your skin and really make themselves felt when you shower!
Thanks! I’l remember not to volunteer to do any grass cutting in the summer then, those things sound awful!
I’ll try to give you some reassurance. Give it time. Really. I used to hate spiders and most other creepy crawlies. It’s more than 2 and a half years since we moved to this village and I have encountered more than my fair share of these creatures…not to mention scorpions and snakes. OK I give the latter two a wide berth, but I have overcome my fear of all the other things and now manage to dispose of them without screaming. Just keep telling yourself they must be so much more scared of you, than you are of them!
Maybe I should shout at them? Thanks for the re-assurance Ayak. I did think I was getting used to them but maybe that’s why I’ve had two incidents this week – I’ve let my guard down! I don’t think I could deal with scorpions and snakes as well!
Scorpions drove me out of my abode in Montaud. I was terrified more of my little boy being stung, and being a long way from help. He’s skinny. They were under the pets’ bowls, in the towel after a shower, in shoes. Bats hanging over my son’s bed and wouldn’t leave. HUGE poisonous bright yellow and black spider in the garden. My idyllic three months hit the road for safer (?) climes. I guess I’m at least a hotel-near-a-city girl, but watch those roaches dance in Paris! Fact of life, best to train the kiddos early.
Oh my Lisa, that sounds like a whole different level of creepy crawlies! There is no way I’d last three months in those conditions so bravo! I guess Baby Piglet’s going to grow up with them so it won’t be as bad.
Look out for Ants and snakes!
I can just imagine you trying to remove your clothes to get rid of the caterpillar!
Look out though they come in twos or in the case of processionay caterpillars a long line!
http://pigletinportugal.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/killer-caterpillars/
don’t think you have these in France though!
Invest in some thick gardening gloves, BBQ tongs, and a spider catcher.
PiP
Can you remember the wasp you spotted in my hair? Urk! I’d totally forgotten about that until now!
Thankfully there was only one caterpillar. I don’t think I would still be in the countryside if there was loads of them, they are gross.
We have thick gloves I must remember to put them on. What is a spider catcher? Mr Piglet??
Nah, a spider catcher is a contraption you can buy, A shoe works just as well or a broom if you want to be frugal. I used to be terrified of ALL creepy crawlies in Portual until I made a study of them and learned which ones were NOT human friendly
Don’t worry you’ll survive 
Us Piglets are made of strong stuff
PiP
Just get used to all those bugs. And watch out for fruit bats, too. They will all become your friends someday.
Fruit bats? Seriously? I’ve not seen any bats but then again I’ve not been out after dark or at dusk – too scary!
We did go to a concert in Vaison La Romaine this summer in the Roman Amphitheatre and there were bats flying around. It took a lot of effort on my behalf to stay calm, thankfully I was already scared of heights and suffering from vertigo – the bats just seemed secondary
Ants make me the most mad. I clean and clean and at least once every year, they show up anyway.
Urk! Don’t get me started on ants, they are just the creepiest things ever! We had them in the city as well so I’ve been used to dealing with them for a long time.I totally get you about cleaning and cleaning. They just come back! When we moved into our city loft we had an infestation. I would spend hours cleaning, putting down boiling water, powder and poison and each night when I got back from work they’d be back. They were so freaky! In the end I filled every single gap I could with ant gel (cost a fortune) but I was clear for a few years afterwards.
Not had ants inside here yet, only outside – there was a battle between red and normal ants, was crazy and lots of dead ant bodies!
If it’s ants….we have what they call ‘cleaner’ ants here…they arrive en masse, go through your house like a suspicious mother in law devouring everything in their path and mess off when they’ve cleaned up everything in sight….really useful, just keep your feet out of the way.
Love the MiL reference, why does that happen anyway? I hope that the cleaner ants never make it to France, that sounds v scary!
Ahhhh, you remind me of “country” living where the bugs are bigger and have bad attitudes
I have this Thing about spiders.. I would have been in the car and out of there, screaming the entire time into the cellular for my husband to come kill it or else.
Wasps .. I am allergic to bee stings so I have every Right to throw a fit and run screaming if I see one. Screaming loudly.
My son spent months in India , he never mentioned anything negative except for a word about the size of the spiders.
I will never be found in India. Perhaps, I will never be found living in the French countryside
But you and Little Piglet can visit me in Paris.. in the Bugless apartment we will live in
besos.
So much for reading your comment discreetly whilst working! I screamed with laughter at the image of you getting the hell out of the house, whilst screaming into your phone at your husband! LOL! I will try that next time
I probably wouldn’t need to use a phone though 
I am already terrified of wasps and bees and cannot even imagine being allergic to them. Think I’d need to live in a skyscraper, right up high where they don’t go.
As for India and foreign places, well… we went to Cambodia once and the creepy crawlies crept me out so much I was tucking trousers into socks.
But you know the city isn’t perfect either?! Lyon (and I should imagine Paris too) has rats. You often see them scuttling out of the drains and in the tube. Makes me shudder just thinking about them.
EEK! I think a week like that would take years off my life. I can handle the spiders but that one was truly impressive! Long sleeves from now on!
Tuck the long sleeves into gloves otherwise you’re leaving room for the caterpillar to make his way up there…
I totally get you on this one! Since I moved to the country, I’ve seen more bugs and critters than I care to count. I have wasps, weird black wormy things that always come in the living room, flies the size of quarters and we even found a centipede the other day to which my daughter promptly said she was packing and leaving! I hate bugs and they are everywhere here! My husband asked me what I expected when moving to the country. I guess I never thought about it. Now I do! I want those creepy crawlers to stay away.