The morning car ride to work is a short drive for me. I’m typically running errands on the way into work, or making phone calls to family…catching up on the latest comings and goings.

This particular morning, I had just left home and the car radio was on and that’s pretty standard. The radio is soothing background noise. What grabbed my attention that morning was the intense discussion between the two DJ’s about the word CRITTER. The opinions were definitely opposed.

One of the DJ’s was intent upon using the word as a negative term in regard to describe an animal/pest situation, such as a mouse or rat. The other DJ debated the word CRITTER as a way to describe any animal. I was inclined towards the later view.

What I gathered from that brief discussion was I never had really thought about that word origin before… was this word, CRITTER a true Southern thing? What is a CRITTER???

According to the dictionary, the definition of CRITTER actually refers to any type animal or creature… all creatures, great and small. The word derives from the term, Creature, as a variation… in regional dialect format. The word first appeared in the early 1800’s in literature as a derivative of creature.

I’m not really sure what I think about this word after my last encounter with the critters of the belly crawling type… lizards and snakes this past weekend😳. My first encounter with a lizard was short, and shocking to both of us. As I dug into an old flower pot, digging out the old roots with ungloved hands, as I began to pull up and out with the old root system, a lizard emerged!!

He was stunned as was I. The “critter” lizard was simply lying on the driveway unmoved. As the shock waves wore off that I had unearthed a lizard, my lesson in grabbing my gloves was brought back to view.

My other “belly crawling critter” of the snake type, has been spotted in my front flower bed. Ugh!!! Action has been taken to hopefully keep the snake from returning. My eyes are constantly peeled to keep any crawling critters in full view as I walk up the front sidewalk. I think I would actually call him, Mr. Snake, a “varmint” or pest instead of a critter.

I must confess, my brain went to work quickly on this radio banter probably because we tend to deal a lot with pest control issues/ repellents inside the hardware store.

Folks tend to fall into two camps, as they are dealing with CRITTER issues… repel or embrace/make peace or coexistence with the Critters, making it a bit of Riddle. Which path to take???

Don’t get me wrong… Critters and PESTS are two different things in my mind. Pests can be destructive if action isn’t taken. The question, one must answer is the Critter becoming “Pest Like”??? In order to solve the CRITTER RIDDLE, and make the decisions that are necessary for all critters involved, both should be taken into consideration.

Case in point, Deer. What I have found is that some people welcome the deer into their yards by feeding these critters with offerings of deer corn, or other foods, providing a food source instead of hopefully letting the “critter deer” feast upon the tender garden plants themselves.

Others, repel the “critter deer” away from the delicate gardens in hopes that they will go elsewhere for a yummy treat. The Riddle… requires a bit of ingenuity of what will work well for that critter in order to achieve the desired outcome for each homeowner. Critter v. pest???

Which leads me to ask the question… How do you view that word, CRITTER??? It might not be mind boggling stuff, but maybe an exercise in how we view the outer natural world. A riddle of nature itself.