Hot day, hot night, dinner outside. Wasps are almost a given when we eat on the deck at this time of the year. They turn up when we’re halfway through the meal, then buzz around and find nothing to their liking (too many veggies and too little meat) but the smell is enough to keep them circling for as long as the plates are there.

This summer we have more earwigs than I’ve ever seen. They seem to be everywhere! They crawl out from under the edge of the door, from under the garbage containers and the flowerpots, from inside the mailbox.