Our six-legged friends

**WARNING**

If you suffer from even moderate squeamishness or any degree of bug-phobia, I strongly suggest that you skip this post.

We just returned from the annual family reunion campout, which went as well as can be expected with a mildly cranky six-month-old. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to next year.

The campground was a little less burned-off and thus a bit more buggy than in years past. I was more cautious than usual about keeping the screens on the tent zipped up and food crumbs swept out.

However, we did take Thor's car seat out and set it on the picnic table a couple of times. After the second time, I had nestled him into it for a nap and was horrified when an earwig crawled out of the padding somewhere and scampered around near the baby's innocent little face. I immediately took him out, shook the seat out, and inspected it for more bugs. I found a couple and then it seemed as though it was bug-free. I am still feeling a bit squeamish each time I put him in the seat. Most bugs I can handle, but earwigs (and silverfish -- blech!) gross me out.

Anyway, we have now returned from the wilderness and are once again esconced in our comfortable, relatively bug-free surroundings.

Today at work I was pumping some milk for the baby when the pump started to make an odd sound. The tubing has been kinked a little bit so I inspect that and after a bit, the sound went away and things seemed to be fine. However, after a couple of minutes, I noticed a dark spot in the milk. I thought that was odd, and wondered if it was possible I had somehow bled without realizing it. I looked a little closer and to my horror, there was an earwig floating in the milk bottle!!!

I am not certain how it got there. I glanced at the bottles as I attached them to the pump, and I certainly didn't see anything scurrying around then. I am grossed out by the thought, but I think the earwig must have been in the breast shield portion of the pump, which makes my skin crawl just thinking about it -- that means it got sucked into the bottle after I started pumping, possibly explaining the weird noise I heard. Ugh. Yuck.

I was simultaneously slightly nauseated and really annoyed about the wasted milk. I can't give the poor piggy milk in which an earwig has drowned. Now I am trying to figure out how the earwig got there in the first place. The breast pump has been sitting on our living room floor the whole weekend until I loaded it into the car this morning. So here are the possibilities, as I see them.

1) There was an earwig on my person and it ran into the pump while I was hooking things up. Disgusting factor: Astronomically high. Probability: Low. I have showered thoroughly since we returned home and am wearing clothes that did not accompany us on the trip. Plus, wouldn't I have felt an earwig crawling around on me all day? I think so.

2) There are earwigs in our house, and one crawled into the breast pump bag over the weekend. Disgusting factor: Moderately high. Probability: Somewhat low. I haven't seen any earwigs in or outside of the house, and if we do have them, wouldn't they be more likely to congregate in a moist area like a bathroom or kitchen than in the dry-as-a-desert living room carpet? I hope so.

3) There are earwigs in the car, and one crawled into the breast pump bag this morning. Disgusting factor: Somewhat low. Probability: Fairly high. I'm not that enamored with bugs in the car, but better there than in my pants or in the house, right? And I see no reason one couldn't have run into the breast pump bag this morning. If they are there, they'll probably die off or flee in a few days as long as I deprive them of nourishment.

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Too gross not to share.

(P.S. I will be sterilizing all breast pump equipment when I get home tonight. Still debating how to deal with the cleaning of the bag itself.)