I found some squatters in my crawl space today. Freeloading vagrants who were living in my house without me knowing. How could they have moved in without me knowing? Usually squatters squat in a house that’s empty but these spineless vandals have no respect for property or privacy.
It’s a good thing most of them were dead.
Snails, centipedes, millipedes, and rolly pollies had moved in to my crawl space when there was a small pool of water. What must have seemed like a lake to them has now dried up leaving their equally water-free bodies to litter the desert of my crawl space. Only one large snail seemed to survive.
The most surprising find was the large claw of a male fiddler crab. I don’t know if I should be excited or nervous that the crabs are trying to move in. Have my experiments with the crabs gone too far? What do the crabs want? They’ve conquered the ocean now the crabs are trying to take over my house? Sure, I’m a scientist, but I was never trained for this. The crabs are a crafty bunch.
New Leaf 
Hi David,
I enjoy your blogs as a unexpected pleasure in my inbox.
As it happens I also just finished reading:
Never home alone : from microbes to millipedes, camel crickets, and honeybees, the natural history of where we live / Rob Dunn 2018.
which you may enjoy if you did not actually contribute to the book.
So now I know camel crickets are unsuspected guests in most homes. I will be watching for mine. Considering it was 4 deg F this morning without windchill, I hope they’re hunkered down somewhere place comfy in the insulation.
It’s a pleasure to be unexpected. And what timing with Rob’s book. I have not had a chance to read Rob’s Never Home Alone (man, that guy writes books fast), but did read and enjoy Every Living Thing. If you enjoy Rob’s books and my blog, then you’ll love David Haskell’s The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees.