The Burrow

There are seed bugs infesting Tucson.  They are little black things, and they are at every doorstep, inside every hallway, sometimes managing to get to the ceiling and crawl around up there, too.  They are slow, and easily removed, but they are unusual enough to get people talking.  The Plant Clinic hot-line at the Master Gardeners' office has been inundated by queries about these little guys, and so the resident entomologist was consulted.  He identified them, attributed the omnipresence of these nymphs (early stage of bug-ness) to the unusually wet winter just past, suggested sweeping them up if they presented a problem, and urged us to become one with the bug. Seriously.  I thought I'd left Marin behind.  Apparently, this is a man who has never met an insect he didn't love.  Become one with the bug..... not likely.  As we weeded and perspired in our Xeriscape Garden this morning, we Master Gardeners considered the consequences of bug-one-ness...