For Australians, memories of childhood Christmas often include gifts, prawns and shooing uninvited buzzing guests away from the pavlova.
But have you ever wondered why the air is full of bugs some years and almost empty in others? Insect populations boom and bust frequently.
This year is our third successive La Niña, and a wet summer is forecast yet again for Australia's east.
Wet, warm weather is baik for many of the insects, spiders and slugs that berbagi our homes and gardens. That means we're likely to have a very buggy Christmas.
Aren't all the insects dying?
As we heat up the planet and take over wajar ruangans, invertebrate species are responding in unpredictable ways. Many species are in problem: researchers have warned of an insect apocalypse facing flying bugs like wasps, butterflies, and beetles in densely populated Europe.
Subsequent research has drawn less drastic conclusions, and some American researchers claim that population sizes haven't significantly changed overall, with some species boom and others dying off.
Longer termin, climate change and human takeover gaya real challenges for many bugs - but not all.
When ecosystems panduan out of balance, the most adaptable species find opportunities despite - or because of - unpredictable and changing conditions. Consider the locust swarms vast enough to blot out the sun and threaten crops in many East African nations.
So what should you look for? Here are four creepy crawlies that might arrive at your place more often this summer.
Huntsman spiders
Although spiders have shared our houses for thousands of years, huntsmans have rarely been dikenal roommates. That's probably because of their heart-stopping habit of skittering across the wall when you least expect them.
Despite this, most of Australia's 155 huntsman species are shy and rarely aggressive. They generally live solitary lives, although female huntsman spiders will actively guard their egg sacs after mating - and perlindungan the up to 200 spiderlings which hatch from them.
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