Scorpions, and Spiders, and Ticks, OH MY!

Arkansas is an amazing place! I'm sure in more ways then one but what I am talking about isn't a good thing. At least not in my eyes. I've never been fond of bugs. And we have lived in a lot of places and have seen our fair share. But nothing can compare to Arkansas. I know, you wouldn't have ever guessed it but it's true. Arkansas has every bug known to man. Even desert creatures that you thought would never be here. We have encountered a few things in our home and even more outside. Like the usual........ ants, they seem to always attack the bare feet and ankles (ouch!!), spiders most of them are harmless but we do have the black widow and the brown Regulus which we have see on occasion. Miskito, ticks (which make my skin crawl), and chiggers (which are just a miserable thing to have). Now the things you wouldn't expect to be here......Scorpions, we found 2 in our house already, and even tarantulas!!!

There was one just crossing our driveway and going into our front yard when Layton screamed at us to come out and see the tarantula. Of course Don and I were both thinking he must be mistaking. But when we got out there, sure enough there it was. And I've lived in Arizona before and never saw one. This was amazing to us so we just had to take pictures. The locals say that the tarantulas are really calm and wont hurt anyone. Unlike the scorpions. Very mean.
We also get weird reptiles here. Like snakes, but they seem to stay on the out skirts of our yard. We do have a constant stream of turtle and frog visitors in our back yard. And a steady flow of geckos hiding out in the front yard near our house. One time I found a pretty large lizard in the garage one day and I was terrified of it. I told the kids to not go out there and I would just leave the garage door open and hopefully he would leave on his own. It took him two days to finally leave. He was scary looking with different colors running down his tail. Something you would see in the tropics maybe. I told my husband about it and friends trying to see if anyone knew what it was. Nobody seemed to know and I don't think my husband believed me. But the other day Kelland came to me and said that there was something in his room and he couldn't catch it. When I looked it was a gecko that was not willing to surrender itself. We lost him quickly and I just figured he escaped out of the house or we would see him soon. Life went on and I forgot about our little visitor. UNTIL 3 DAYS LATER!!!! I found him hanging on my curtains in my bedroom.I screamed for Layton to come and get him.(having boys comes in handy sometimes) But that was after I took a picture (I just couldn't resist).I didn't notice until I looked at the picture later that he had a blue tail reminding me of the big lizard that I saw in the garage. I about died realizing this could have been the same thing. Crazy!!! I don't know what is up with this place but I really feel like it could just get up and crawl away. Creepy! Have I got you feeling itchy yet?