Our house has a covered porch that runs the length of the front, but we don’t have any permanent patio furniture. Instead we stick with folding chairs of various sorts that we can easily bring out and in. Primarily the reason is I hate having to check for and evict bugs on a seat I’m about to sit on. Admittedly, this feeling stems from our first fall here when the bugs were overwhelming. We used to go on morning patrols just to look for new paper wasp nests. The Asian lady beetle population came out in mid-October and we were stunned. It’s an invasive species, appearing like lady bugs but more orange, that was introduced to eat agricultural pests like aphids. They’re mostly just annoying, and I can’t remember even seeing an aphid here, but come late fall they look for places to hibernate. The warm surfaces and nooks and crannies of a house bring them to roost.

Bug spray stocks that first year would have been a good buy just because of our efforts. True story: I bought a leaf blower that fall, not because of the leaves but because of the THOUSANDS of Asian lady beetle bodies I had to get off the porch. A broom wasn’t going to cut it.

After a while, we got a handle on the bugs and populations are under control. We started leaving the chairs folded up in a protected corner of the porch and for the most part they were left alone. One summer though, I almost sat on this:

Here’s a picture of his backside in case you’re into identifying frogs:

I think it’s either an eastern gray treefrog or a Cope’s gray treefrog. From what I’ve read, they basically look the same but sound completely different and this guy wasn’t talking. My husband dutifully relocated him to a nearby tree and we enjoyed our day.

The next day, Kermit was back on the folded up chair in the corner! He came back so often that summer that every season I still check my chairs for frogs before I sit down. I have no idea why he found that chair so inviting. Maybe he was eating bugs for me.

Anyway, he was a fun little surprise that I thought I’d share. Not all surprises in the country are positive, but I’m glad Kermit came by. You never know what a day might bring, so watch where you sit. 😊