Wallington’s Riverside Flair and Close-Knit Camaraderie

Out-of-the-Box Bugs and Worrisome Weavers

With abundant vegetation and a diverse landscape, Wallington welcomes a range of rodents, insects, and arachnids. They routinely enter homes through open doors, tattered window screens, gaps, and cracks.

Spiders are pests with scary reputations. Despite this, most are harmless (and excellent pest controllers, too). Only certain spiders are venomous, although others have uniquely alarming talents. Some can jump, taking a leggy leap of up to six inches to escape danger or catch prey. 

Ants aren’t typically as scary as black widows or brown recluses, yet some species (like fire ants) can sting repeatedly, causing a sharp, pinprick-like pain. Insects that work together as a collective, these giant ant swarms can strip prey down to its bones (after all, it takes a village!). Although different ant species can coexist, conflict is not uncommon; some species enslave others, forcing them to work.

Earwigs prefer dark and damp places where they can hide, often emerging in the middle of the night. Their pinchers look scary, but are so tiny that their pinch isn’t especially painful. Invasions can happen inside Wallington homes and buildings, but these critters prefer to be one with nature, forming collectives under stepping stones, big rocks, and tree stumps. 

Roly-polies are related to shrimp and crabs; they’re land crustaceans that don’t need to live in water but do require moisture (which is why they often appear after a downpour). They don’t have lungs but breathe through gill-like structures, and their ability to roll into tiny balls as a form of defense makes them part of a unique class in the animal kingdom (hedgehogs, armadillos, and pangolins can do this as well).