Cute As a Bug

Trey Smith

I'm not sure where the phrase "cute as a bug" originated, but me thinks a bug must have uttered it first! Only a bug would think that a bug is cute! Have you looked at most of them up close and personal? A good deal of them look rather gnarley, in my humble opinion. (To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if bugs think the same thing of us!)

While bugs may not be the sexiest creatures on the face of the earth, I will give them credit for being darn smart. No matter how we humans try to eradicate them, they seem to keep puttering along year after year.

Take, for example, the flea. If you have dogs or cats, you know the difficulty in trying to keep your beloved companions from becoming infested with fleas each summer. This year, as we have done for many years, we trotted down to the vet's office in April to find out which magical ointment or elixir was to be this year's first defense against the coming infestation. Not surprisingly, this year's strategy was the same as last year's. And, as we have been noting for quite some time, what worked stupendously last year is not very effective at all this year!

The fleas have learned to adapt. What killed them last year doesn't kill them this year. This is good for the fleas, but bad for our pets AND ourselves. Though we have dutifully provided two of our dogs (our hairless dog doesn't need it) with their monthly anti-flea pill, they have both become infested with the biting bugs, nonetheless.

It has been this way for quite some time. Fleas become a problem in our household every other year. Every two years a new "can't miss" concoction is brought out on the market and it is very effective for that year ONLY. By the time the next summer rolls around, them smart fleas have figured out a way around it and so the "can't miss" concoction misses badly. Veterinary science will catch on to this notion and I'm sure a new concoction will be ready for next year. It will work grandly next summer and then not work at all after that.

And so the cycle goes...