What I am going to cover with this essay is how your home goes from being a brand new structure to a home infested with bugs and rodents or the evolution of a dwelling. What I call house evolution.

For our example, I will look at building a standalone structure in the middle of the woods or a desert and it doesn't matter which except the building in the desert will have a greater effect because of a more significant increase in food supply.

Any time you build a building, especially a wood frame house, in an uninhabited area, you increase two things; 1) food and 2) cover.

You have to understand that your house and many of the things in it are made from plants, which bugs and rodent eat.

Yes, I know that the marketing people for those products, especially the lumber companies, tell you that their products have been treated with toxic chemicals to make their products pest resistant. It is like I have told you, always pay close attention to the words people use, especially educated or trained people. Note that they do not tell you that their products are pest proof, just pest resistant because the pests still love to eat them.

Therefore, when you build a structure where no structure existed, you are increasing food for the bugs and rodents. When you plant grass, bushes, and trees in your yard, you are also increasing the food and cover for bugs and rodents. Every additional structure you build will also provide additional food and cover for bugs and rodents.

In biology, cover does several important things; 1) cover makes it more difficult for predators to find prey and 2) cover makes it more difficult for predators to get prey.

If bugs and rodents can get both food and cover from the same additions to their environment, that is a good thing for them and they really like that.

Also remember that I have taught you that population growth for all organisms, including plants, is heavily tied to food supply. As you increase the food supply for those organisms, their populations will grow. Therefore, to prevent bug and rodent populations from growing too much, when you build a house, you need to also increase predation for bugs and rodents and the best predator for bugs and rodents that cohabitates well with humans is the house cat. Remember that I taught you that better than 70% of a free roaming feral cat's diet is bugs.

Are house cats perfect?

No, but they sure beat the other choices we have.

Concerning plants, the best vegetation as a food supply for bugs and rodents is a well kept lawn.

Why?

Because a well kept lawn is very dense, juicy vegetation with more food per square foot than just about any other plants in your yard. The bugs crawl around under the grass leaves, where you can't see them, feasting on the leaves and roots and the rodents will visit your lawn at night or early morning while you are sleeping to feast on the leaves, roots, and bugs in your lawn. A well kept lawn is a great buffet for bugs and rodents.

Also, the lumber yard will tell you that their wood has been kiln dried, falsely giving many people the impression that most to all of the water has been removed.

If you want to see wood from which all of the water has been removed, look in the bottom of any used fireplace at the black ash. That is wood from which 100% of the water has been removed and is useless for building homes.

If you want to see wood from which most of the water has been removed, look at charcoal, which is very brittle and also a lousy building material. Note that people who need fires with very high temperatures use charcoal because, when burning wood with very much water in it, the water is vaporized by the heat and carries much of the heat from the fire away causing to fire to burn much cooler. When burning wood or charcoal which has very little water in it, there will be very little water vaporized to carry away heat causing the fire to burn much hotter.

The wood used to build your home has had enough of the water removed to make it less supple so it will be less likely to bow or warp and also cause it to be stronger and more rigid.

This is all important, because, after you build your structure, that wood will continue to dry with water vapor gradually leaving the wood and taking some wood molecules with it out into the outside air through tiny cracks in your structure that even water can't get through and you won't be able to see.

Note that your best built home is not exactly a high tech space shuttle and is actually built with considerable leeway for error in construction. If you don't believe me, just open the cabinets below any sink and look at the holes your pipes pass though in the floor and wall. The holes are normally about two to three times the size of your pipes to prevent crimping the pipes. Note that a mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime and the extra room around the pipes and wires in your home are much larger than a dime. Therefore, there is always plenty of holes and room for those water and wood molecules to escape to the outside.

Those water and wood molecules escaping your home are carried around by air currents or wind for miles.

It is also important to note that all of the plants in your yard will also be breathing or respirating out water molecules with plant molecules attached to them, especially flowers, to draw certain organisms to them to pollinate the flowers, but even leaves are constantly "respirating" out water and plant molecules that draw bugs and rodents to the plants.

Have you ever noticed that bugs have two antennae and not just one? Why?

They are directional finders that pick up molecules and, by having two, they can locate the direction those molecules are coming from. If you watch, you will notice that bugs tend to crawl or fly in erratic directional changes because they will get more food molecules on one antenna and turn in that direction until they get more food molecules on the other antenna and then turn back until they get more food molecules on the first antenna. They will continue doing this to follow the food molecules to the food supply until they have located the food supply.

Basically, all of the plants and plant products in your home and yard will DRAW bugs to your home for food because, to bugs, your home is food because you built it using their food, you know, plants.

The bugs will follow those molecule trails to your home for food, many will stop to dine in your yard, and others will follow the molecule trails to find ways into your home and crawl around in your walls, floors, and ceilings without you knowing it...for years. Almost all of the bugs will move into your house when it starts getting cooler to hibernate for the winter and, because it is warmer in your home, they will continue to feast and make babies.

When the bugs get to the food in your home, they will do the munchies until they regularly get full and then their little bodies will get horny and tell them it is time to mate because, after all, they are taking in lots of food and should start reproducing. They have found paradise and it is time to make babies so the bugs start putting out molecules called sex pheromones to tell other bugs of the opposite sex that, "I have found an abundance of food and I am horny so come join me for dinner in paradise."

Those sex pheromones will leave your house with the food molecules that are leaving your house and other bugs will follow those molecules to your house for the food and sex. The bugs now have twice as many reasons to drop by your house and say howdy.

Those other bugs will follow those food and sex pheromone molecules to your home, get the munchies, get laid, and start pumping out from dozens to hundreds of eggs creating their own civilization in your house, often without you even noticing it for years.

Have you ever noticed that rodents have two nostrils, just like all mammals?

They are directional finders just like the bug antennae. We mammals have sensory glands built into our sinuses that tell us which side gets more molecules to help us find the source of food. You use it to find something like a really great smelling BBQ and you can locate the direction it is coming from very quickly because your nose is a very good directional finder.

Have you ever watched a rodent sit up and smell, turn in another direction, smell again, turn part of the way back towards the first direction, and smell again?

He is locating a food supply with his directional finders, you know, his nose. Note that your ears and eyes work a similar way, using sound and light, to help you find things because they are also directional finders.

What is the rodent smelling for?

He is trying to locate those molecules being given off by your house and the bugs living in it because the rodent eats both of them.

The rodents will follow all of those molecules being given off by your house and bugs in your house to your house. Some will stop in the yard to dine while other follow those molecules to find openings into your house where they will find rodent paradise, lots of food and no predators...yet. Note that they will all move into your house for the winter and, because it is warm, will continue to dine and reproduce right through the winter.

The rodents will get the munchies, get full, get horny, and start sending out sex pheromones telling other rodents that, "I am in paradise, come join me for dinner." Of course, other rodents will follow all of those plant, bug, and now rodent molecules to your house, get the munchies, get full, get laid, and start pumping out babies. Your home has just completed phase two of its evolution and is ready for phase three.

Have you ever noticed that snakes have a forked tongue? Do you know why?

It is a directional finder just like your nose. At the top rear of a snake's mouth is a sensory gland that reads the molecules the snake grabbed out of the air when it stuck its tongue out telling the snake which side of its tongue had the most food molecules.

Have you noticed that a snake will stick its tongue out to grab some molecules, turn its head, and stick its tongue out again?

It is locating the direction food molecules are coming from, you know, the molecules being given off by the bugs and rodents in your house, which it eats. That snake will follow those bug and rodent molecules right to your house, some will stop to dine outside, and others will follow those molecules into your house, often without you noticing it for years. All of them will move into your house when it gets cold for the winter.

Did you know that a 10 to 12 inch rattlesnake can squeeze through a 1/8th inch or 3 mm hole?

There are plenty of holes that big or bigger into your house. House trailers and manufactured houses in particular have plenty of holes for them to get into the house but so do wood frame homes.

Note that we organisms also smell to check for molecules being given off by predators so we can avoid them.

Therefore, if a rodent, bug, or snake smells food molecules from one house and food and predator molecules from a neighboring house, which house do you think that rodent, bug, or snake will be more likely to go to? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out, does it?

So, if you have free roaming feral cats in your yard and your neighbor doesn't, the pests will be much more likely to go to your neighbor's house and the cats will get most of the ones coming to your house.

Get the picture yet?

In a nutshell, that is how a structure evolves from a brand new structure into a pest infested structure and they all do it. Everyone has bugs, rodents, and even snakes in their yards and homes and most don't even know it. Some homes have more pests and threats to the occupants than others for good reasons.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

You better....