Hooptedoodle #448 - Once Again, Nature Attempts to Play with My Head

 An odd time of year, as the Autumn rolls in, and one feature of this here on the farm is that there are rapid changes in the wildlife - especially insect and invertebrate life. We have a house joke here, which is "the crop of the day"; one day, especially if it is sunny after a period of wet weather, the garden may suddenly be full of large moths, or perhaps swarms of bluebottles, or little flies sitting on the whitewashed walls, enjoying the sun's warmth. They are gone by the following day - all tiny cogs in Nature's wondrous machinery.

A few years ago, I got a bit of a fright when mysterious signs appeared on the Velux window in the attic, but it turned out it was simply the track of a couple of slugs (or maybe just one slug?) across the outside of the window. I published a post on this at the time. 

It's happened again. Keep calm. This is this morning's edition.

Since I observe that my previous slug-writing post was almost exactly this time of year, I was less alarmed when a similar sign appeared on the same window; I now know what caused it, this must obviously be the time of year when slugs start hiking around roof-windows, but if it comes back later to complete the drawing from 2019 I shall become very worried indeed. I'm keeping my eyes open.

Last night we also suddenly had a load of very noisy, very vigorous houseflies whizzing about in the upstairs bathroom. Another seasonal crop. They were bouncing off the tiled walls and the mirror - not recommended at all. I don't care for these chaps; one or two can be ignored - they won't live long anyway - but a whole gang of them is too much, and is likely to upset the Contesse. They almost certainly have hatched out in the loft area above the bathroom, probably on Monday when it was warm, and have got in through the small gaps in the bathroom ceiling around the halogen lighting. Whatever the back-story, they were unwelcome [I would be reluctant to create a nuisance in their bathroom, for example, though there might be some philosophical debate about whose bathroom we are discussing here], and, though I am not enthusiastic about chemical warfare, I shut them in overnight with a short burst of Raid insecticide. [Sorry about this - I am not proud about it]

This morning I went into the upstairs bathroom at about 10am, to see how the chaps were getting on. I regret I did not manage to get a photo, but there were 8 flies lying dead on the tiled floor, which is not unexpected. The thing which raised the hairs on the back of my neck a bit was that they were in a straight line. If I'd had a metre rule handy in the bathroom (I didn't) I could have proved it, but they were dead straight - not evenly spaced, but straight.

Now this really does get your mind racing. Another warning from the other side? In fact, it's not much of a puzzle (I am very relieved to report). The poor flies, suitably unwell from their exposure to the spray, must have been drawn to the window (another roof Velux) as the sun rose this morning, presumably buzzed their last up there, and as they died they slid down and fell in a line which was parallel to the bottom of the window frame.

So that's all right then. Nothing strange to worry about at all. It was weird while it lasted, though.