Among the joys of living in a relatively rural environment is the ability to get up close and personal with wildlife without leaving the comfort of your home. In the winter, it is the annual invasion of the fieldmice that keep us and the cats busy. But in the spring, it is the onslaught of creepy crawlies that has the vacuum cleaner ever at the ready. On the sunny southern exposure, the exterior walls are black with box elder bugs basking in the warmth. They ooze in around the window frames in a manner that used to remind me of the Amityville Horror, but now goes virtually unnoticed, since they don�t bite or sting and are relatively easy to squash. In my basement office, however, I am treated to piles of circular centipedes and spiders in ever-increasing numbers and size.

I have never been too squeamish about bugs or spiders (especially the latter, which are useful in eradicating the former), but even I have to draw the line when it starts to feel like an obstacle course walking across the few feet of space from my laundry room to my desk. AJ, however, is still amused and comes down with his magnifying glass to inspect the wildlife. "It's not as big as the spider at the butterfly house," he offers doubtfully after inspecting an arachnid creeping up the side of a file cabinet. He's right, thankfully: the spider at the butterfly house is a tarantula.

Then there are the raccoons. Raccoons at this time of year are rather�libidinous. Their shrieks wake us up at all hours of the night. They shriek from the wooded plot by the creek in the back of the yard; they shriek from the roof of the house; they shriek from under the deck; they shriek from the deck right outside our bedroom window. They shriek at three a.m. Lately, they have also been attempting (unsuccessfully, so far) to claw their way through the window of my office, which is under the deck where they like to hide. I hear odd scratches and thuds and push back the curtain to find myself face to face with a pointy-nosed masked face. We both freeze and then the raccoon turns around and lumbers off.

In a couple of weeks we'll be fending off bees, who like to nest in the walls of the house by where the TV cable enters, and the paper wasps who build nests on the stone front of the entryway and in the trees that line the driveway. And the ants are already gathering outside the kitchen door. I think they're planning a military maneuver. Just as long as the coyotes steer clear of the house, I think I�ll survive the siege.

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