Tiffany (00:01)
Hello Kat How are you?

Kat (00:02)
Hello, Tiffany.

Doing all right, how about you?

Tiffany (00:06)
Not too bad. always refreshed. Even though my brain is fried, I'm refreshed coming here. We were just saying that, so

Kat (00:13)
Yes, yeah,

Tiffany (00:14)
Entomophobia That's our topic today. It's sort of our topic. The Entomophobia is an irrational, extreme fear of bugs. that's like the phobia version. Only like six to ten percent of the population have that.

Kat (00:25)
okay.

gonna

say I think people generally just have like a ick thing about bugs, not like a I can't leave the house because of bugs kind of thing.

Tiffany (00:34)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

and it's funny 'cause I try to find out how many people are just sort of like generally afraid of bugs. And I get all kinds of twenty five percent. I got someone saying sixty five percent. I'm just like I know. I mean there's the the fears survey where it's like what are you most afraid of?

Kat (00:53)
I don't know how you'd quantify that, right? Like

Okay.

but bugs are like there's a lot of s very specific instances of bugs, right? I'm afraid of a tarantula hawk stinging me to death. Yeah, not to death. They won't kill you, but it is the most painful sting. Right. I am afraid of being awakened by a tarantula hanging over or a black widow hanging over my head. That's scary. don't love cockroaches, but not like scared of them?

Tiffany (01:11)
Dude.

Feels like you're gonna die, probably.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (01:28)
Per se, I won't pick them up. But I don't want one crawling on me, you know. Like, am I afraid of mosquitoes? No. Do I recognize they're the most deadly insect on the planet? Yeah. Should I probably be afraid of mosquitoes and wear, you know, bug spray more? Probably. But mm, you know, like so fear of bugs, I'm again, like we said last week, there's more than a almost a million known species of bugs. Like I I'm afraid of

Tiffany (01:47)
Yeah.

Right.

Kat (01:56)
That scene in Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom where she has to reach through the hole in the wall to like stop the thing the room from crushing him and sh there's like so many bugs in that hole. I don't like that. I'm afraid of that. Is it am I gonna encounter that in my lifetime? Probably not. So

Tiffany (02:10)
Yeah.

Likely

not. You never know, I guess.

Kat (02:17)
That's not so the fear of bugs is kinda, you know, like not like a fear of heights. Like there's one thing to be afraid of with a fear of heights, right? Heights. Heights is one thing. Bugs? Different situations.

Tiffany (02:27)
Yes.

Yeah, totally.

Kat (02:33)
Fear of public speaking? One thing, speaking in public. Right? Yeah, Ada's got a Ada's got a a squeaker toy that she

Tiffany (02:37)
I heard the squeaker.

Kat (02:44)
Anyway, Sophia Bugs. No. Ada's

Tiffany (02:46)
Yeah, we're not afraid of Ada.

yeah, so we are gonna be this is gonna be kind of a different episode. We are talking today about fear of bugs and all and how to like basically like our personal stories on how we've overcome our fear of bugs. So I have my own. And together we'll learn how to make friends with insects. Welcome to greening up my act.

Kat (03:08)
Yay.

Tiffany (03:29)
Alrighty. So yeah, last week we will we learned why bugs matter and why we shouldn't just be smashing them with shoes every time we see one. and today we're gonna hopefully learn a little bit about like how how to not.

Kat (03:45)
How to make f

how to how I learn to what is what is the We were talking last week about how our brains are mush. My brain is mush. The Stanley Kubrick movie about the bomb. Doctor Strange Love. Or how I learned to get over whatever.

Tiffany (03:54)
Mm.

yeah. How to

How to

make friends with a bomb. Okay.

Kat (04:06)
friends and influence insects s

Tiffany (04:07)
Ha

That's different. yeah. so most people don't have this phobia. And I actually tried most people are just like afraid. And I tried to kind of figure out like why we're afraid. And I think there's you said a theory last time, but it's all theories. It's like we don't really know yet why exactly we're afraid.

Kat (04:12)
Mm-hmm. That's different.

Right. Right.

Yeah. Like

I mean you're probably gonna cover this, but they generally think that we have some innate fears of things that can harm us, right? But not all you know, that doesn't explain all fears and it's not always true, right?

Tiffany (04:43)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah,

because actually most bugs won't hurt us. Cockroaches can't do anything to us. It's just they f yeah. And that's what some scientists say is like it is i either an evolutionary anxiety or a sense of disgust. And that's Yeah. And but like why? I don't know. Like why more with a cockroach than a mosquito? I don't know.

Kat (04:56)
Right. Right. They're icky.

Yeah. I think disgust is probably stronger. Yeah.

'cause they're bigger.

Tiffany (05:23)
Well, mosquitoes are quite small. So if they were really big, with really flappy wings, like those mayflies, we probably wouldn't love Uh-huh. yeah, so what kind of bugs are you afraid of?

Kat (05:25)
They are small.

God God Yeah and that long prob probiscus what do you call that? Yeah.

I have always been afraid of spiders.

Tiffany (05:41)
Okay. Yeah, you've said that.

Kat (05:43)
Until kind of recently, weirdly. Yeah. And I don't know why. I mean I'm not like let's have spiders crawl all over me, but I'm not like it used to be like, I don't know. I had like an experience I realized I wasn't afraid of spiders anymore because of this experience. I don't think it made me not afraid of spiders. But I was sitting on the front patio and this little tiny jumping spider, tiny tiny tiny, kept jumping on me.

Tiffany (05:45)
That is really interesting.

Kat (06:10)
And I was like, get the fuck off of me. I was like, it really wanted to be on me for some reason. And I was like, ugh and then I came inside and sat down at my desk and I had like file folders. And I think it was the same jumping spider just crawled over the file folders and looked at me. And it was so tiny. Yes, it had come inside. I think it had hitched a ride on my pants. And I was like, fine, you can hang out. But it was just the cutest thing. I don't know. And I realized like, I mean it was so it was

Tiffany (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Inside.

My gosh.

Kat (06:40)
Tiny, you know, super tiny. but I was like, I guess I'm not really afraid of spiders anymore. I mean black widows. I don't fuck with those. Yeah. Yeah. But or may you know, probably a wolf spider would scare me. Or like a camel spider, you know. Those ones that eat They're don't don't look it up if you don't want nightmares. Yeah, I think camel spiders are in the Middle East, maybe. I don't know. But you know.

Tiffany (06:40)
Yeah, yeah.

Well and that is fair.

Yeah. Okay, I don't know what that is, but that sounds horrid.

Is that in Australia or is that near you? Okay.

Okay. Probably where camels

are.

Kat (07:11)
There's tranchulas are kinda cute.

Tiffany (07:14)
Mm.

Kat (07:16)
You know, I'm not I'm not like it used so the it used to be where if I saw like a picture of a spider in a book I would get like a shiver. Yeah, I don't get that anymore. I can calmly I think I actually removed a daddy long legs from a pillow at my house once without screaming or killing it or

Tiffany (07:26)
wow, okay.

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

And those are definitely not gonna hurt you. Right.

Kat (07:41)
And they're not they're not spiders either, technically.

but yeah, I've I've gotten over it somehow and I don't know how I did it. But I do remember as a young child, we were learning about mealworms, I guess. And the teacher who was teaching us had brought in like mealworms. She had some in like a little Tupperware container and like passed them around for us all to look at And for some reason, when I took the container, again, I just

Tiffany (07:49)
That's awesome.

Mm.

Kat (08:12)
did that shiver thing where and it was like I had no control over it. I wasn't even like panicked about I I wasn't like, ew no. It was just like all of a sudden I freaked out. I didn't like drop or anything. It was just the shudder went through my body looking at millworms. I don't know what it was.

Tiffany (08:26)
Interesting.

Huh. Some

people don't like worms, so

Kat (08:33)
Yeah, I don't have any conscious like aversion to them.

Tiffany (08:36)
Yeah.

Kat (08:39)
I don't I don't have like visceral memories of being like Yeah, I just there's something like

Tiffany (08:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, I wonder if you had you may have had like an actual phobia because I listened to a couple podcasts about like bug f fear of bugs, like bug phobias, and I was trying to kind of get like some tips, but they were just they weren't that help one of them was more helpful. The other one was talking about like law of attraction. And it was she was a freaking therapist. She was talking about law of attraction. I think it's this idea

Kat (08:59)
Yeah.

Stuff okay, explain. What? Okay.

Tiffany (09:11)
That you attract

Kat (09:14)
What you're afraid of?

Tiffany (09:15)
No.

it's where you attract like what comes to you in your life is because you've attracted it. So if you it's sort of like manifesting in a way.

Kat (09:23)
Okay.

Right.

I could kinda I mean, okay.

Tiffany (09:31)
I'm not

saying it's like absolute garbage, but I was just like

Kat (09:34)
No. I mean it kind of

kind of the other thing is that like you will pay attention to things. people who are lucky, they say, like aren't really naturally lucky. They're just looking for opportunities that other people are like, Well, it won't happen to me, you know? Yeah. So like

Tiffany (09:50)
Yeah. That's what I was thinking. If you're like,

I want this thing in my life, then you're like, maybe yeah, something comes up and you're like, maybe that's a way to get that thing.

Kat (09:58)
Y that's it. Yeah. If you're open to it.

I can kinda get that. I don't know how it relates to fear of insects though.

Tiffany (10:07)
I'm not sure.

Kat (10:08)
Anyway. Yeah.

Tiffany (10:09)
It wasn't very helpful. The other one was

a little bit more helpful, but still kinda like vague and not that helpful. So I was like, maybe we should just share our own personal stories. because mine was kind of similar to yours. I still am a little a phobia usually comes from like childhood trauma, actually. Yeah, and I don't know if you know what happened.

Kat (10:27)
okay. Wow, yeah.

Tiffany (10:31)
when you with a spider, but maybe something when you were a kid? Yeah. Friggin' arachnophobia, who knows? Yeah. That Yes.

Kat (10:33)
No. It might have been a movie or something that I watched that like freaked me out. Or probably was arachnophobia, let's be honest. That came out when I was like six.

But I feel like I already was afraid of spiders at the time. That might have just solidified it, made it worse. I didn't watch the I wasn't allowed to watch a movie, so. But I think it was on like good I do have a vivid memory of it. Clips of it being on Good Morning America. So that might have done it. When I was like before school, when I was five or six years old. That might have done it.

Tiffany (10:46)
could have been. Mm-hmm. okay.

God. Yeah.

Yes.

because I when I was a kid, my grandparents had a parrot and it one day decided it wanted to land on my shoulder. But in order to do that, it flaps like crazy. You know. And that scared the absolute bee jeepus out of me. And since then I get really

Kat (11:06)
Okay.

Yeah.

I'm sure yeah.

Tiffany (11:26)
Like I never had this before, but I get like really creeped out by flying things. And yeah, and like flying bugs, not butterflies, that feels very different. They're like they're fluttering. They're not like Bssz Yes. Yeah. Hummingbird's fine, but like it just yeah, I also have like a visceral thing.

Kat (11:32)
Flapping wings. Okay, all flying things.

Yeah. Yeah. They're not like whoop whoop whoop or buzzing or something. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Well I

I feel that way about flying cockroaches.

I can ye that's not that's not cool, that gives me a thing, a twitch, for sure. But it doesn't stop me from like going outside.

Tiffany (11:55)
That would do it. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

no, yeah, and that's that is as bad as it can get. It can definitely get that bad. I I will say I don't think I've gotten totally over I've definitely not gotten totally over my flying insect fear.

But I have gotten over a lot of the other ones. Like I was also scared of spiders. And this is weird, but when I got my dog back in the day, I loved her so much. And I just saw her face in everything.

Kat (12:25)
Okay.

Mm.

so okay, yep.

Tiffany (12:40)
Yeah, and there was a moment where I was actually in an outhouse randomly in like the woods in West Virginia. There was a spider on the door as I was leaving, like as I was trying to open the door and I saw the spider. I saw its little face and I just saw Ruby. I saw like my dog. I just saw like l life and I saw it as its own creature and its own like lovable thing.

Kat (12:57)
Yeah. You're a baby dog.

Tiffany (13:06)
And it was sort of like since that moment I was like, these are really cool. Like these are creatures. They have their own personalities even probably. like the one you met. It's just like, hey, what's up? I wanna hang out.

Kat (13:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, they do.

Yeah, it just I don't know what

I was like, what what do you want? Like what I am a big hairless ape. What do you want from me?

Tiffany (13:27)
Yeah.

Kat (13:30)
And it just wanted to hang you know, I don't know what it I don't know. I am anthropomorphizing, you know, and giving it feelings and emotions, but I was like, it came with me and hung out. So it wanted to do that apparently. I don't know why.

Tiffany (13:33)
Yeah.

Yes, of course. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think

that that I mean, I think even if you're anthropomorphizing in a way it can help because you start to just see the the life in bugs. Yeah.

Kat (13:55)
Yeah, the the value. The the like

like I said last week about can you name every ant you ever killed? And if you value, you know, this natural creature that also did not have a choice in beginning put I mean I'm I as far as I know, ants don't get to choose whether or not they're ants, you know, neither do humans. As far you know. Can't speak for the mice or the spiders. I don't know. Guessing. we don't

Tiffany (14:03)
Right.

Right.

Mm.

Kat (14:23)
None

of us has a say as creatures about where we are where we spring from and, you know, that kind of recognition is really Yeah. It just changes you for sure.

Tiffany (14:29)
Yeah.

Yeah. And I think just trying to when there is like a lot of people are afraid of bees.

Kat (14:42)
Mm.

Tiffany (14:43)
And I do understand the allergy thing. And it can be very painful even if you're not allergic to get stung.

But I think the thing to remember is that most bees flying around have zero interest in us. It's like sharks or snakes. They don't give two shits about us. It's just if we if we're flapping our arms around

Kat (14:56)
Yeah. Yeah. No. Spiders too.

And or yeah, we're threatening their nest, right? What would you do if somebody came after your baby and you didn't know? It was a big hairless ape and you didn't know what its intention and it eats everything. Big hairless apes that eat everything. What do you think it's gonna do to your baby? I would be scared too.

Tiffany (15:05)
Right.

Mm.

It does drive me crazy when kids like some of Charlie's classmates, or adults, especi that actually especially drives me crazy because I know the kids have learned it from their parents. When they just like see a bee and they're like, bee, bee, a bee bee. Yeah. Yeah. And I think most rational people know that, but

Kat (15:30)
Yeah.

They start screaming. Yeah. Just calm the fuck down. Calm the fuck down.

Tiffany (15:41)
I don't know. S if you have a phobia, I get it. Or if you're allergic, I do get it too. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (15:44)
Yeah, if you're allergic, fine. Okay. Yeah, but don't freak out. I mean that's yeah, that's

rule number one. Don't freak out.

Tiffany (15:50)
And try to teach her kids not to freak out. Like that's what I try to do with Charlie. And she goes in and out of being afraid of certain bugs. Like she had this phase where she was terrified of gnats Anything, any kind of flying little baby gnat. She would be like, it was in the car. She'd start screaming. And then immediately I was like, look how you know, my response was always like, Look how cool. Like, look how small and cute it is. And she'd be like, it is cool.

Kat (16:04)
wow.

Well, interesting.

Yeah. It's shiny and green or yeah.

Tiffany (16:18)
Cool. You know, she would immediately be like, yeah, okay. But for the most part, she likes bees, she likes bugs. But I think it's like all of society is telling her all these different things. And she did get stung, so that doesn't help. so she's doesn't like to walk on the grass now because she got stung and she's like, There might be bees And I'm like, okay.

Kat (16:31)
Okay, yeah.

That's I mean and that's something okay. Yeah. That is scary.

We just have to walk on the grass several more times to learn that not every time is a bee. Yeah.

Tiffany (16:45)
Yes. Yeah. There's not

always a Yeah.

Kat (16:49)
I guess exposure therapy is supposed to be

Tiffany (16:51)
Yeah. And I was gonna say I don't I mean, obviously we're not therapists, so we can't even give

Kat (16:56)
Right, no, this is this is

just all postulating and our own experience. Like, do not take this as medical advice.

Tiffany (17:00)
Yeah.

But I kinda think my way of doing things was exposure therapy because like, for example, I am the spider catcher of our house now. And it's because I just kind of face my fear. I used to be s pretty sc they weren't like my biggest fear, but I've if they're large, then I was always kinda like, Okay, that's a big old spider

Kat (17:22)
Yeah. Spiders are yeah.

Tiffany (17:26)
And I was also raised, you know, spider Yes. but then I kinda just started catching and putting outside. And then I know, there's that whole fucking thing, and I looked it up 'cause there's that study or whatever that came out a couple of years ago saying like every spider you put outside will die. So don't even bother. But the thing is, I think that's house spiders.

Kat (17:29)
Yeah. Screaming at spiders. Yeah.

no.

Is that right?

Tiffany (17:52)
Quote unquote house spiders so like spiders that have been adapted to live in a house. I'm talking about wolf spiders. That's mostly what we get in our house. And they're quite large. Yeah, they're pretty they can be pretty big. but I know that they're not gonna hurt me. So I just am sort of like I'll show Charlie every time, I'll be like, look at how cool this spider looks and I'll just catch it in a little glass with a paper and whatever and then put it outside.

Kat (17:52)
Okay.

Okay.

Okay, right.

Okay, those are fucking terrifying, I'm sorry.

Tiffany (18:20)
so they don't actually scare me that much. I did have one run over my foot after I put it outside, and I was like, I didn't love that.

Kat (18:25)
Don't do that. Run away. I think that's

the thing about bugs that is sucks is that they don't care if you want them around or not. They have their own flight path and they're just coming at you. Like June bugs? Fuck you, June bugs. They're just always like funk, you know, and it's like, I didn't ask for this. You know, obviously mosquitoes have a reason for attacking you. They're drinking your blood. Everything else, I'm like, why don't you get away?

Tiffany (18:36)
Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kat (18:53)
from the hairless ape Why are you running into my face? Like w s when a spider runs at you or a cockroach runs at you? Like no. Cockroaches are usually smart enough to run away but

Tiffany (19:00)
Right.

I

have a really funny story about my mom, can I tell it? Just because R.I.P., you know, you gotta share these stories. There was once where we we were in our garage and we had si spotted a mouse and I think we were out there trying to catch it or like get rid of it or like try to figure out what to do with this mouse and my mom moved something aside and the mouse took off and ran up her entire leg.

Kat (19:07)
Okay. Yes, please.

Mm.

Tiffany (19:34)
And then up her body.

Kat (19:35)
What were

you thinking, mouse? Yeah. Was this the wisest I don't why do they do that? There's gotta be some reason. 'Cause that happens that's not

Tiffany (19:46)
It was so but she was screaming. It was so funny.

Kat (19:49)
I bet, yeah.

What is that drive? Like run towards your death? Is it like battle cry? Like what are they doing? LeRoy Jenkins. yeah, they run into your car.

Tiffany (19:53)
I don't know. That's the thing. Yes. Yeah. It was the same with this deer. Deer do the same shit. Yes.

Like jump on your car. It's like, That wasn't really smart now, was it? I don't know, me Anne. Maybe it's their Yeah, it is their battle cry.

Kat (20:06)
Yeah.

Yeah. I mean

Leroy Jacket.

Tiffany (20:18)
Ha ha ha

Kat (20:20)
Yeah. But I don't get that.

Tiffany (20:22)
But yeah, I think like exposure therapy can definitely help. and I was even thinking if somebody if you like really are afraid getting like a jar and kinda hanging out with like catching catching for a little bit and then hanging out with it. Or even just looking at pictures, I feel like could help.

Kat (20:43)
Yeah, pictures

is a good start. 'Cause you know a picture can't do anything to you. Yeah.

Tiffany (20:47)
Mm-hmm.

And though a lot of the advice that the woman on the Not Terrible podcast s gave was to g basically like

Talk yourself through it. Like reassure yourself that it's not going to hurt you and that like this is technically an irrational fear, even though some people would not really call it that, but

Kat (21:11)
Right.

Well is there such a thing as an irrational as a rational fear?

Tiffany (21:17)
I would think, I mean, in my head, fear of heights if you're like in my head, fear of heights is a rational thing. Or fear of flying just 'cause that's like

Kat (21:19)
I guess

But I mean Yeah.

I mean but the the thing about feelings is that they're all irrational. Like they might have good bases, like rational bases, but all when we experience feelings, they are not rational. They are feelings. And so y yeah.

Tiffany (21:33)
Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah. And they're also not real. That was one thing she said.

She's like, remind yourself that this is just a feeling. So

Kat (21:47)
Yeah. I mean feelings yeah,

they're not real in like a concrete earth sense, but they are real, but they are malleable and fluid also. Like it's not a fact. Again, it's not a fact. Your feelings are real and valid, but they can change and they are based on chemical input and history and it they change. That's the thing. You can change your feelings.

Tiffany (21:52)
Right. It's not like yeah, it doesn't

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and they're not truth. Yeah.

Kat (22:17)
Yes.

They're they're not in a not in a global sense, right? Truths. They are your truth. There's a reason they're happening, but that doesn't mean that it's the only possibility or you know

Tiffany (22:26)
Yeah.

Yeah. But

I d I do think sometimes they're not actually your truth. They're just your brain tricking yourself. Yeah.

Kat (22:36)
They're a reaction to something. Yeah.

Yeah. It's it's weird truth. Right. Well and that's Well but the Yeah. I mean

Tiffany (22:41)
You're like convincing yourself, if I'm I'm a ugly slob, like no, that's not really true, but

Kat (22:50)
That's the like the thing that happens if you I'm very interested in the psychology of how human beings consider ourselves to be so rational and we're really just not. Like we make decisions based on feelings and then rationalize after. And and this like drive of modernity to

Tiffany (23:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Kat (23:20)
pretend that feelings don't have any influence over what we do is like actually really bad. And the thing about feelings is yeah, they're f they're fluid and they're not always based in they're not always based in reality. They can be based in the past. You know, they can be based in their learned behaviors and things. Assumptions. and you just have to acknowledge that you have them for them to change. Yeah.

Tiffany (23:29)
Mm.

Mm. Assumptions, yeah.

yeah, that was another big thing. Is like you can't

run away from your fear and you can't say like just don't be afraid, just don't be afraid. Like that's gonna do the opposite. Yeah.

Kat (23:49)
Right.

Yeah, you have to say, like, I am afraid. I am afraid. But I can unpack it, you know? Why am I

afraid? It's you know, you know that you're afraid of flapping things because a parrot scared the shit out of you when you were five years old, you know? And you can say, Okay, I am having this reaction. Thank you, body. You know, fear is fear is a natural response to stimuli. is this the truth in this moment, you know?

Tiffany (24:04)
Yes Yep

Mm.

Mm.

Kat (24:20)
I

am afraid, but is what I'm afraid of true? Is that actually what's happening? Okay. Yeah.

Tiffany (24:24)
Right.

Yeah. And she was saying like this I th I think it was called like the how to podcast. I can link it, but she was saying

basically that you can you're not stuck with it, with the fear. And I will say it's such a great joy now that I'm not as scared. It's like

Kat (24:46)
Yeah.

Tiffany (24:47)
It's just so nice to like have bug friends. And that's dumb. I don't mean that. But like

Kat (24:50)
Yeah. Right, we're not we're not like calling them on the phone on Tuesdays and like

But yeah, to like be that's the thing. I was like really impressed with my one of my my best friends from seventh grade, is into bugs. She's into bugs. Maria, if you're listening to this, I love that you're into bugs. She will take kids on tours of the bugs at the Natural History Museum. She

Tiffany (25:13)
That's amazing.

Kat (25:15)
Taxidermis like beetles. She will wait for she's like, I've been watching this beetle outside of my window and it's on its when it dies, I'm gonna taxidermy. She doesn't she won't kill them, but she will taxidermy them, you know, when she finds cool bugs and she'll make like statues or jewelry or you know, and it's like and she knows how to identify them and she you know, and it's like that's freaking great. And she's not an entomologist by by profession. This is her volunteer life, you know? How cool is that?

Tiffany (25:16)
Okay.

Mm.

That's awesome.

Mm.

Yes.

One of my friend's daughters is the same way and it is so cool. She actually gathered my friend gathered a bumblebee, I think, that she found dead on the ground and took it home across the States, like drove it states away because she knew her daughter would want it.

Kat (25:46)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's what when I

I had a tarantula hawk in my house and the guy that I was dating at the time like killed it with a one of those electrical rackets. And my friend Maria was like, send it to me and I'll make you jewelry out of it And I was like I threw it over the fence. Like as far from me as it would go. Like

Tiffany (26:14)
And you were like, No, thank you.

Yeah, that was a horrifying I still talk about that to people. I tell people about that. Ugh.

Kat (26:25)
Yeah. It

was that was the that was terrifying. Yeah. Okay, I'm afraid of that bug, but Yeah. It looks like the alien. Yeah. So But I can admire them from afar, you know, when they're not in my house flying directly at my head. those are pretty bugs. And how cool. What a cool I mean, they're villainous, you know, villainous backstory about

Tiffany (26:31)
That is that feels fair, but yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally.

Yeah. And impressive. Yeah.

Kat (26:52)
burying spiders alive and tarantulas alive and burying their eggs in them alive so that when the larvae hatch they eat the tarantula from the inside. Like that's villainous behavior. But how what a cool thing for a bug to do.

Tiffany (27:05)
Yeah.

Very innovative for sure. Yeah,

Kat (27:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (27:10)
yeah, but I think I mean it just it does bring a lot of joy. And it's not just the butterflies, but it's like the little tiny wasps, it's the the big wasps, it's the

Kat (27:20)
Yeah. The tiny

bees in the hibiscus stalks.

Tiffany (27:23)
Yes. The big

yeah, big cool spiders that are running around our house that our cats now love to chase. Yeah.

Kat (27:29)
boy. Ada

Ada is on a cockroach hunting. When we take her for walks, we walk past a bunch of manhole cov like water mane covers. And at night we're walking and she pounces all over for the cockroaches. She loves it. But if she catches one, she's like

Tiffany (27:42)
my gosh.

Kat (27:47)
She wants the chase, not the

Tiffany (27:48)
Yes.

I mean this was a kind of weird episode, but different episode. Yeah, just do what you can. It takes time. It took me a couple of years.

Kat (27:53)
Yeah. But PSA, get over your fear of bugs.

Yeah. I don't even if it's not just sitting with him, maybe if the first reaction isn't just to like kill them all. I think that's the point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (28:06)
Yes, yeah, totally. And call your spouse.

If you have to, you know?

Or like a friend or call a friend and be like, Come over. Yeah. Save me from my Yeah. Yeah. Or I guess, ugh, if you have to kill them. If that's if you just freak out and that is your reaction and you can't help it, throw it outside so it can be food for the birds. Yeah.

Kat (28:17)
Yeah. Can you take care of this wolf spider for me?

Yeah, let a bird eat it. Let a yeah.

I was thinking about that today. I like, We have a house fly in here. I wonder if I could zap it with one of our tennis rickets and give it to the baby cardinal in the yard.

Tiffany (28:45)
Maybe you could try. Yeah.

Kat (28:46)
I don't think it would work, but

their parents would dive bomb me again, but I will. I'm so afraid.

Tiffany (28:51)
Right, probably. Keep me posted on that, I'm curious.

Yeah. I

All right. well next week I forgot to look. Shoot. Okay.

Kat (29:00)
I'll look real quick 'cause I'm

I mean, I think we're out of the bug woods after this week.

Tiffany (29:07)
We might have do we might have one more actually. yes. Yes. Maybe. No, I'm like not so sure. Yeah, I might 'cause I also want to talk about green walls this season. 'Cause Sean requested it and I just learned some stuff about so I'm kinda

Kat (29:09)
bug lights. I think you're talking about bug lights.

If yeah. See how we feel. Yeah.

yeah.

Tiffany (29:28)
Right, we'll figure it out. We don't know what's going on next week. We'll figure it out. cool. Well this actually ended up being shorter. That's kind of amazing.

Kat (29:30)
Yeah come with us on a journey

Yep.

Yeah, go I mean we ask every week. If you can please drop us five stars, a review. If you really want to email us, please tell us what you think. Greening upmyact at gmail.com. We never get emails. We sometimes we do. We ha we got one last week. But yeah, write us a line. We'd love to hear from you.

Tiffany (29:52)
Yeah.

Yeah, totally. All right. Thank you for listening. Okay. Yeah, I know, right? Bye.

Kat (29:57)
Yeah, have a good night. Stay cool.

Bye.