Every summer, when I have the house open and the fan drawing air into my bedroom while the light is on, some species of flying creature tries to adopt my room as its habitat.

For some reason, these invasions seem to be generally limited to a single species per year. For example, I've had Miller moths, and the local, spiky beetle, mosquitos, and of course wasps once.

This year a strange, pale green insect something like a lacewing has chosen to be my invader. These beasties are surprisingly hard to kill. A good whack with the fly swatter only seems to stun them momentarily and I'm forced to crush them by hand with a kleenex.

Until this evening: I noticed my invader beating his little brain out in the lampshade. Taking up my weapons, I waited for him to maneuver out of the lamp to a locale where I could get a good swing going. I never got the chance. While I watched, my flying friend landed on the inside of the shade, then appeared to try to take a step, stumbled and fell down, apparently unconscious, to the base of the lamp.

I watched him for about a minute, but he never moved even though he was lying on his back. I applied my standard remedies to make sure of his state, then lay back down to consider the implications.

I considered claiming, for dramatic effect you understand, "fell down, stone dead, to the base of the lamp" but I suffered a sudden bout of intellectual honesty and had to forgo that.