it's roly-poly year
I noticed a few years ago that every spring we're invaded by a new type of seasonal bug.
usually we get the occasional spiders, stink bugs, and ants, but last year we got house centipedes, the year before that was crickets, and the year before that, I got an infestation of stink bugs that was only central to my room (somehow).
this year, it seems that it's roly-polies. I've seen a few here and there, but considering the weather has been fluxuating from 70+ degree weather to 40 degrees and back, they're not consistent.
ever since last year when I started seeing house centipedes (and we had an unfortunate stint with pantry beetles from bringing in invested grains), I started investing in a trap and release method over killing them, alongside trying to study what bug it was and what threat it would actually pose (which for pantry beetles, could be a lot).
I have had really bad insectophobia (and greater arachnophobia) outside of certain bugs all my life. I've also unfortunately had the experience of living in an old house that gets a wide variety of 'visitors' depending on the season or circumstance. this has boded terribly as we've experienced a fair amount of infestations outside of bugs just existing in the space, which has only exacerbated the anxiety.
I say all this to say, I'm both happy that I've gotten better at trapping and releasing and that we have less scary looking bug this year. after last year with the centipedes, this'll be a walk in the park.
though... I'm not looking forward to seeing the spiders, no matter how much I know about their temperament. except bold jumping spiders. I might be enamored with those ones.