Yes, he was resting comfortably when I got in and disturbed his slumber.

New bed arrives on Sat. — yes, haha good timing but it is not a new mattress. Might have to be, though, as the old one is now a bonfire in the back yard.

It had to be the painters.

Exchange with DH this morning (he is away):

T At least your DH did not give you that ”it’s more afraid of you than you are of it” line— which is patently false as well as patronizing crapola as we all know the emotional range of worm, snakes and insects!

Maire Cate I saw one of those tomato hornworms when I was about eight years old under a tree in my aunt’s backyard on a farm in Tennessee and I refused to go near her house to visit ever again. I was hysterical at the time and remembering it even now makes me catch my breath. O.M.G.

I am a gardener and cutworms are definitely my nemesis. My guess would be that a moth laid an egg in your house if someone did not track it in. I would probably be grateful though that it was just a cutworm. Every few years a centipede makes it into the house and sometimes into the bed and those definitely give me the heebie jeebies!

If that thing had been in my bed Id be dealing with a hole in the ceiling, I’d have jumped that high.

One time there was a slug crawling up my curtains. I had to have a friend come over and remove it. How did that ever get in here?

I thought from the title you were going to say bedbugs! A caterpillar is nothing..

Sue, I’ve never even heard of that, and feel bad for how hard I’m laughing at you and (most of) this thread. It’s very insensitive of me and, going forward to 2025, I’ll try to be better.

I once got a strawberry limeade at Sonic … happily slurped away, got down to the last of it … felt something on my tongue, and thinking it was a piece of strawberry, bit down … it wasn’t a strawberry.

IT WAS A FLY AND I BIT IT IN HALF.

DH had to pull over so I could get out and retch. He and our DD were in near hysterics, laughing so hard.

I have to go lay down now, I feel faint just remembering that awful Sonic Fly Day. Hopefully with no worms in my bed.

You just unlocked a past trauma for me.....

I was traveling for business once and was all settled into bed for the night. I was propped up on pillows watching TV, and flipped over to re-fluff them...only to watch a 4" house centipede which was under the pillows dart down the backside of the mattress.

They bite, just so you know.

The headboard was affixed to the wall, the mattresses were those 2 feet thick ones which I couldn't move if I wanted to...and there was approximately a ZERO percent chance I was getting back in that bed.

I packed up my stuff and went down to the front desk and made them move me to a different room.

It'll be awhile before you stop checking the bed compulsively before you get in it! :-)

Oh Jilly, I have no words.

When we first bought our lakehouse, I was cleaning some shelving racks in the laundry room. I pulled a piece of twine out of a crevice. Uhh, it was the tail of a dead baby mouse. DH is surprised I was not institutionalized.

DS, age 4, was playing in the backyard sandbox when he ran up to the house screaming. A 3" beetle was clinging to his little finger.

While there are occasional critters in our house, one of the joys of living here is that in 40 years I have yet to see a cockroach, something I saw regularly when I lived in NYC. It didn't matter how clean your apartment was, in the days before 'roach motels' and the like they were everywhere. I can deal with just about any kind of bug, except those!

Mtn, omg. A tail. 😫

My worst was the night my Chihuahua burried the canned dog food under the covers to save for later. I turned out the light and got in bed. Came out fast and spent the next two or three hours washing everything!

Many years ago, DH was sick and lying on the couch. He happened to look down and saw a small (6") garter snake come out from under the couch. He wasn't fast enough to catch it, and it slipped down a heat vent. He helpfully mentioned that they like warm places. Like beds.🥺 Thankfully, it emerged and was captured.

I'll withhold the stories of the several times we had a (harmless) black snake in the house.

Yall are so funny! Sorry Sue you found that in your bed, but as someone mentioned, better than bedbugs!!

Yes, those tomato worms are awful looking. I had a few on my tomato plants a couple of years ago. We have woods all around our neighborhood, so bugs are expected, BUT, we have a great pest control service that pretty well takes care of them.

Have any of you ever camped??? 😂

Needless to say, I am not a camper. I am fine with bugs being outside where they belong, though. Let it be known, though, that I allowed a guide to place a banana slug in my hand in Vancouver last summer. Outside, where it belonged. They also showed up in our semi-outdoor shower every day, and that made me scream a little bit.

Centipedes are the WORST. They are, like, prehistoric. Often when we first show up to our beach cottage, one of those evil beasts will come out of the kitchen sink drain to welcome us home. Cue bloodcurdling screams.

I'm so sorry. And agree it was a cutworm that surely came in with the painters - possibly dropcloth but could even have been holding on to the underside of a can of paint. I've dealt with several in the yard and sadly many of them become moths so don't feel badly about flushing it.

When we had this house inspected when buying it, the inspector was actually laughing about the quality of the original workmanship. I remember him saying 'overkill' and he was clearly delighted at how strong and solid. Still, somehow the doors at each end of hallway, one that let people into my mudroom, then office, and we could exit at the other end to the patio in back seemed to have doors with thresholds that just didn't fit quite snugly. I never knew what I may find in that hallway when coming in here in the morning. A spider, an ant, and yes - a couple of times a cutworm. I had the thresholds and the storm doors replaced and have never been sorry, not even when the bill was much higher than I'd anticipated. (who knew storm doors cost so much!)

But I had a real surprise in my close-by laundry room one morning. DH had left for work, I was still in my nightgown and in front of my washer dryer when I caught movement in my peripheral vision. A tiny newt lurching towards me - and my bare feet - on the floor!

I think he'd made his way into my kitchen, wearing a couple of little dust bunnies possible picked up under my refrigerator. Yes, a little lizard in my house. I had no choice but to deal with him myself, grabbed a huge handful of kleenex and picked him up. Little stinker went stiff as a board and played dead. I put him in a box with lid and outside in the shade to show DH what a brave girl I'd been when he came home. The newt was no longer dead by then and DH took him across the way to our ravine and released him near a creek. The call to the contractor went out that week.

Years ago someone on these forums was having a problem with tarantulas around their outside entertaining and pool area. I would have sold, moved.

Some caterpillars turn into moths rather than butterflies; I forget who asked about that. Some species are far more beautiful than any butterfly. It’s interesting how some people are so fearful of harmless critters. I guess it’s because they aren’t recognized as harmless. I’ve always thought of most caterpillars as ”pettable”! Tomato/tobacco hornworms are truly harmless but they scare a lot of people.

Lol Sue, I didnt figure you for a camper. We did for years and loved it. Just as I love gardening, etc. you just have to know you are going to encounter bugs. I draw the line at snakes, once came upon one near our back patio and put a bucket over it until the Mr. got home to safely deliver it to the woods lol. We are in the foothills area of the Smokies and used to swim in that area. Gotta keep your eyes open, but we love being out.

Here’s a good one: My son was living away from home at school on the east coast; his bedroom is in the back of the house, his room was off our back door which leads out to the deck. I usually leave this back door open during the day so our cats can go in and out. It had been very stormy here, and some trees had been cut down further down the hillside, as I recall.
Anyway, I went into his room (the bed was positioned lengthwise along the wall) and noted an unfamiliar gray pillow on the bed. Uh…I looked closer, and it was BREATHING!! I thought to myself, “Oh, please be a cat, please be a cat!” And tossed a cat toy at it, and the “pillow” became an opossum that lifted its head and snarled at me for disturbing its nap. OMG!!!! Did I ever scream!!!
Long story short, animal control came and removed my uninvited guest. I actually think he’d been in there for more than a day! We think he’d been displaced by the nearby tree removal and rain, and attracted by the cat kibble and the nice warm bed. Don’t worry, we got rid of that bed, lol.

This thread is awesome!!

I swear, I'm not laughing AT you, I'm laughing WITH you... I mean crying with you. I feel your pain though; my most horrifying bug experience involves a stink bug. I lived in an area where they were pretty common in the fall, and even had a puppy at the time who liked to EAT them, which would of course result in the weird, awful smell permiating the house radomly. So one morning I got up, filled my one-cup coffee maker with water in the back, and brewed myself a cup. As I sat down to drink it, I kept noticing the stink bug smell around me. At first I thought the puppy must have gotten one. Then I realized, with slowly dawning horror, that it smelled stonger every time I lifted my cup of coffee for a sip. When I ran to my coffee maker and tore it apart, sure enough, I found a stink bug in the water section, somehow UNDER the filter screen. So basically the hot water percolated overtop the stink bug, then through the coffee pod, then into my cup, then I added creamer, then DRANK IT. So if you're wondering if I've fully recovered from this horror the answer is no, and I frequently take apart and check my coffee maker now on a very routine basis....

OMG, I'm in the sell the house camp. Ugh I would not be able to ever get back in bed without some anxiety again.

Camping? Um, no. Did it a couple times when in college. It was the only way we could afford to be at the beach for the weekend. Once I graduated and got a real job, I declared there will never be another camping trip in my lifetime. I like nature. Just don't want to sleep in it. I have to go back to my nice hotel room with a comfy bed, air conditioning and all the amenities.

Honestly, I've never understood why leave home for worse accommodations than you have at home. But I know people love to camp. Just not me.

Whoa! It's just a caterpillar and absolutely harmless to humans and animals - it's a menace to many gardeners tho. Those things make a mess of my winter tomatoes and I hate them with a passion. I feed them to lizards - or squish 'em 😠

OMG ”an unfamiliar gray pillow”…I would have died on the spot.

Tina, I love to garden too! And hike, etc etc…and again, bugs and worms and whatever are fine there because that is where they belong.

Well, this has been a good day to wash everything: sheets, mattress pad, etc. I examined the area around the bed too and I think it will be safe to sleep in my own room tonight.

But I kinda want to find a little rubber caterpillar to put on DH’s side of the bed tomorrow night so he can quit making fun of me.

Normally most creepy crawlers don't bother me - I'm fine with worms, stinkbugs, snakes, centipedes etc. DD had a corn snake in a terrarium and when she went to lacrosse camp for 3 weeks I had to feed it. Didn't mind the snake but wasn't happy with buying pinkies at the pet store and tossing them to the snake. The tomato hornworm is just gross.

However buzzing, flying creatures like wasps and hornets make me flinch. We were driving our utility vehicle through the woods and apparently disturbed a nest of yellow jackets. They immediately started stinging and followed us all the way back to the house. Some of them got caught in my hair and jacket and as we pulled into the garage I started stripping off my clothes. DH counted over 17 bites - one side of my face was burning, an eye was swollen shut my ears and hands were red and puffy, I could barely bend my fingers.

jsk, we had a very nice camper with a real mattess, bathroom, full kitchen, etc. I do draw the line at sleeping in a tent on the ground or cot. We just enjoy nature I guess! We’ve toyed with buying another camper but so far havent. We do enjoy our trips in nice hotels, rentals, etc.

Marie Cate, ouch! Yes bees concern me much more than creepy crawlies.

I do draw the line at sleeping in a tent on the ground or cot.

I think this is what most of us envision when hearing the word 'camping'. Your setup sounds infinitely better!

OMG, Maire, that’s awful. I hate moths and mice.

oh, and those awful camel crickets that turn up in the basement sometimes. They can leap and scare the dickens out of me. I keep a can of bug spray at the top of the badement stairs just in case!

Another time I went on an Outward Bound trip. I was thirsty and drank a can of apple juice that I belatedly discovered was full of ants. I was picking dead ants out of my teeth.

If anyone is unfamiliar with camel crickets, they look like this.

ded, we get those in our basement every year. Occasionally one makes its way upstairs, and they are really hard to get!

I have camped. I agree with Sue. Bugs where they are expected are one thing. Surprises in bed are rarely good.

As for them being harmless, we get that. I think to be more literal, one fears the unpleasantness of ingesting them or squishing them. Not an attack.

I don't think any of us are literally afraid. I think all of us Moms, for one, who would treat any such incursion blithely if their child were concerned.

Several of you think, and Rubyclaire wrote: “The stuff of nightmares! It will take time, but eventually you will not think about this EVERY time you walk into your beautiful new bedroom. I feel your pain.”

Not a chance, kids! Years ago a centipede was in my bed and I did exactly what Sue did-moved to the guest room while hub chuckled and then slept soundly in our bed. It wasn’t until the room was completely cleaned, drawers and closet included, that i slept in our room again. All these years later, maybe 15-18, I still flip on the lights and toss back the covers to examine the bed before I get into it, even when hub is already in it!

You’re very brave and strong to expect to sleep there tonight, Sue, but i do agree that it came in with painters so it’s a one time event. Unless.……….?

Coincidentally, I had my annual BFFs holiday dinner last night and this was one of the gifts that was lovingly bestowed upon me.

One Sunday I spent the day at home doing chores and things around the house, in and out of all the rooms. In the afternoon I passed my bedroom and something caught my eye. Something was on top of the curtain rail that spanned the top of the slider. Hmmm, as if one of my three cats was playing and tossed something up there. But how weird was that. Went in for a closer look and noticed it had ears, and eyes. It was a rat. Oh $%&*##@. I immediately shut the door and went out to the kitchen to find a broom. I came back, closed the door behind me, opened the slider wide, got on my bed with the broom, and reached over to coax the rat towards the opening. He moved in that direction, but instead of going out the door, he dropped down behind the dresser on the perpendicular wall. %$#@&^%$$$.

One by one, I brought in each of my cats, pointed them to the space behind the dresser, and basically told them to sic the rat. Each cat, each and every one of them, looked at me as if I was insane, and turned around disinterestedly and walked out of the bedroom.

I went out and sat on my front step. By a stroke of luck my next door neighbor was in her front yard and I told her about the rat. She asked, "can I help?" Music to my ears.

We went back into the bedroom. My job was to remove each of the 8 drawers, one by one. My neighbor was to stand by with the broom to guide the rat out the door.

It took removing all 8 drawers!! The rat wasn't uncovered until the very last one. The broom swept him out, the slider was shut, and that was that.

This was back when I had a cat door and my cats came and went. I'd heard a little play in the middle of the night the night before and I'm convinced one of the cats caught the rat and released him for fun in the house. The rat had been in the house with me for at least 18 hours.

I took out the cat door soon thereafter.

It was a long time before I could enter my bedroom without first casting an eye towards the curtain rod.

😱

OMG Bunny.

I've never had a pet door, my neighbor does and while he's never mentioned it, I've always wondered why wildlife doesn't occasionally use them. We do see raccoons in the neighborhood somewhat often.

The worst I ever heard of something entering a pet door was at our former neighbors years ago. A very slim teen girl made her way through the pet flap and let her boyfriend inside. They committed a robbery. And were caught, linked by their fingerprints when doing it again several days later a few blocks away.

I live in town, but half a block from drainage creeks for the city. When my husband was alive, he once got up in the middle of the night to find a possum in our kitchen. I found raccoon tracks in the kitchen and dirt in the cats' water bowl, but never met up with one face to face.

We lived in the woods, so it wasn't unusual to have creatures in the house, mostly insects. At one point I was hearing a distinctly creature-like sound, but couldn't find anything. After a couple of days, I went up to bed. We had a patterned wallpaper, and on my side of the bed there was a spot that didn't belong. It was a tree frog! DH dispatched it outside.

But, we had a two story house, and it was summer so windows closed for air conditioning. How did that little frog find his way all the way up there??

OMG Bunny! I have no doubt I would have died on the spot. You handled that way WAY better than I would have.

I can’t decide if China or Bunny wins the prize??!! Critters getting in the house would scare me. Many carry rabies. We have lots of racoons, and lately authorities have been warning about a disease some have (not rabies). A local bear rescue organization just this week had to euthanize a group of bear cubs due to illness. Bear sightings are more and more common in our area.

We lived in a house with a finished basement years ago and had those camel crickets. Bugs and such don’t usually bother me, but those things creeped me out. So do tomato hornworms, esp the huge ones & the way they will raise their front feelers and seem to just dare you!

We did have a snake in our garage once when I arrived home from work. I could see the tail peeking out from behind the recycle bin. I stopped the car, got out, went around to the front door and changed my shoes. Went around to the get a pitchfork, slowly moved thr bin with the pitchfork to make sure it wasn’t a venomous variety (I didn’t think so but wanted to be certain). Then I scooped it up with the pitchfork, walked back outside and threw it into the woods.

One day I was taking in my groceries through the garage into the mudroom and when I wasn’t looking a chipmunk decided to run into my home. As I was unloading the groceries on the counter we met eye to eye and I ran! Got myself together outside and went back in, opened all the doors leading to outside. I can swear the chipmunk thanked me😁 He looked at me one more time and ran right out of one of the doors.

The rat episode happened about 6 months after my husband died. Had he still been around, I would have expected him to take care of this unpleasantry. But, I was on my own and have been ever since (20 years) so I have to deal with stuff like a rat in my bedroom. In. My. Bedroom.

There are worse things in life.

When I was maybe 12, a squirrel came down the chimney when my mother and I were at home. I remember it so clearly — my mom was ironing in front of the TV, with her soaps on, haha. My dad was at work. The squirrel was going crazy running around the living room, climbing the drapes, etc. We were both screaming like babies and opened all the doors and eventually the squirrel went out the front door.

This thread is absolutely making me laugh out loud. My husband thinks I'm nuts, in here laughing at my computer.

Here's my critter story.....

This happened about 9 years ago. Midnight and I went to the bathroom (in the dark) and saw something scurry across the floor.
Good thing I was seated.

I yelled loudly for my husband, (who was and had been asleep for hours) several times, closed the door and shoved a rug at the base.

He gets up all bleary eyed and says "WTH is going on?" I told him there's a mouse.

Hubs wanted to know what I wanted him to do. Well DUH.

Me:

"Get a mouse trap from the garage."
Him: “No mouse traps. There are mouse traps in the garage. I’m not going to look for one now. I’ll get it in the morning.”

Me: "By morning there will be a 100 mice in there, you’ve got to set it NOW. OR at least some duct tape to seal up the cracks around the door!"

Husband stands outside the bathroom door, (less than pleased) while I go hunt for a mouse trap. I find one, bait it and take it to him to set. (I can't set those stupid snap traps to save my soul-- especially at midnight!)

He gets it set, I open the door and as he's about to slide it in he says, “It’s not a mouse, it’s a RA-.........”

All I hear is “RA—T”

me: "WHAT?? A RAT???“

Him: “NO It’s a baby bunny!”

Amazing how your whole attitude changes from a being freaked out to “awwww it’s a cute little bunny.”
He hands me a towel to catch it in and proceeds to chase it around the toilet, it runs out and into the shower. Hubs closes the door to the shower. He then opens it slightly for me to look inside, and when I leaned in, he PUSHES ME IN and closed the door!

Good for him it was a bunny, or it may have come to blows.

I threw the towel on top of it, caught it and took it outside and turned it loose.
Oh and our ever vigilant wiener dogs? Those vicious, fearless, badger hunting dogs? They slept through the whole thing. They’re an embarrassment to their species!
They probably let it inside to begin with.

We finally came to the conclusion that the baby ran into the house when I was unloading groceries out of the car. That day, hubs was mowing when I got home and he saw some scampering out of his way towards the house.

We used to have a landscaper who, adorably, called them "chipmonkeys." English was his second language.

OMG, Bunny, a rat in the house would send me right over the edge.

Sueb, I do not like squirrels either, but having one in the house and you and your Mom’s reaction reminds me of the scene in Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation.

A restaurant that I worked in was downtown and built over a crawlspace. There were definitely urban rats. I’d arrive at work alone to begin baking at 6am and you had to walk through the dining area to the back of the kitchen to get to a light switch. Pre- cell phone flash lights. I would stomp the whole way shouting rats depart.

We did have a cute little cat named Gorgonzola who mostly lived in the office. Then you had to light the wood stoves to generate heat ( charming, atmospheric old building).