Looking out my Backdoor: October is the best month!

September ended here in my little patch of Mexico with record-breaking heat. The heat I can handle. The humidity is brutal. Early this morning, 70 F, humidity in the 90s, go hang laundry on the line, come inside with sweaty wet hair. In the afternoon, when it is 90, when I return to the house with dry laundry, I’m hot but dry. When we Montanans say, “Yes, but it is dry heat,” we know what we are talking about.

October will be different. Won’t it?

And the critters, oh, my, the critters. Critters in the house. Last night I found a scorpion on the bathroom floor. Alive. Alive when I saw him. The horrifying thing to me is that I never had that stomach lurching moment of fear.

More an “Oh, another scorpion.” Stomp. Smash.

Tonight it was a lizard in the bathroom. It is still alive, somewhere up the wall. Somewhere.

I’ll bet you don’t go to bed wondering if a lizard might scrabble across your face in the night. Have you ever looked at their hand-like feet? Let’s not even allow a thought to form about scorpions in the night.

There are two varieties of ants that are ever-present, in the kitchen mostly. These little buggers are so tiny that you only notice them when they move. Okay, they move pretty much constantly. Vinegar in a spray bottle. Doesn’t stop them but keeps the population down. I am sure my diet is well supplemented with miniscule ants. Protein. We all need protein.

Then the big brown ants show up. Oh, don’t worry about them, I’m told. They just are passing through, looking for water.

Depending on the time of year, I’m also told bugs come in the house to get out of the cold, for shade from the heat, away from the wet, or because outside is too dry. Choose your myth, I say.

House centipedes, roly-poly bugs, silverfish. They are just nuisances. At least they stay on the floor. Spiders are everywhere, all seasons. I have the bites to prove it.

The lizard should be able to find plenty to eat while it shelters from the blistering sun, indoors, wherever it is now.

Both flies and mosquitoes seem to know their season is waning, the cold will come, giving us a few months respite. Knowing this, they zero in, frantic to chomp flesh, mine in particular. That’s not really true, I just feel like they target me in particular some days.

This morning I watched two huge flocks of whistling ducks heading north. I will miss them. They are so beautiful. They leave but their loss is balanced by an influx of colorful others. One bird sounds like a scold and when I scold back, it gives me what for in no uncertain terms. Another helpful bird screams out, “prime the pump, prime the pump.” I’m certain that bird met up with Desert Pete. (Kingston Brothers)

In amongst the songbirds, is a bird which screeches like a banshee. What does a banshee sound like? Well, I don’t really know, do I? But if I did know, a banshee is what that bird would sound like. You can’t refute my logic.

If you are interested in animals on the move, the iguanas move out of our yards during the rainy season, finding feeding grounds in the fields more to their gourmet satisfaction. Once the corn harvest begins, the ugly critters scurry back to our yards, lush with hibiscus and every possible flowering plant we can scrounge from the Viveros. They especially seem to thrive on flowers grown from smuggled seed, not that any of us would smuggle seed, but we do have the odd contact. Nudge. Nudge.

Despite the ravages of iguanas and leaf-cutter ants, our gardens seem to thrive. Well, we tend to overplant them so have plenty to share.

Like I said above, October is the … wait, wait, that’s a typo. What I mean to say is, October is the pest month!

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Sondra Ashton grew up in Harlem but spent most of her adult life out of state. She returned to see the Hi-Line with a perspective of delight. After several years back in Harlem, Ashton is seeking new experiences in Etzatlan, Mexico. Once a Montanan, always. Read Ashton’s essays and other work at http://montanatumbleweed.blogspot.com/. Email [email protected].