My sister Agnes held up her Corning Ware tea pot and asked, “Would you like a cup of tea?” Suzie, Agnes’ black pug hopped around me on her hind legs, begging for attention. Her funny little face with her pink tongue lolling about, gave her the appearance of a small, friendly clown.

With a smile, I assured my sister, “I never turn down a cup of tea!” Dropping down on a chair at the table, I leaned forward to pet Suzie. After getting a few good pets and a scritch behind her left ear, Suzie trotted over to the kitchen counter and barked.

Placing two cups and spoons on the table, Agnes scolded, “You’ve had enough cheese, Suzie!” To me, she confessed, “That dog is so spoiled. I was snacking on cheese before you came and let her have a little. She knows there’s some on the counter, and she thinks I should give it to her!”

Knowing that I like dark chocolate, Agnes opened a bar for us to enjoy with the black tea. While we visited, a small fruit fly flew into my sister’s face. She sighed, “Fruit flies are so annoying!” I nodded. I had them in my house too, since I love fruit and often have various types on my kitchen counter.

Because it was such a pleasant fall afternoon, before I went home, my sister and I walked around in her yard to look at her flowers. Suzie followed us, snuffling the ground, obviously reading the scent of wildlife who used her territory at night. Agnes said, “I think it will freeze tonight so we better take in plants that are on our back decks.”

During one of my visits to Agnes during December, she swatted at a small flying insect and complained, “My house is too chilly for fruit flies. These must be soil gnats from the potted plants that were out on the deck all summer.”

I questioned, “What’s the difference between fruit flies and soil gnats?” Neither of us knew the answer to my question. All we knew was that they had different appetites and had different habitats. It was time for me to visit Mr. Google again.

What I found out was that soil gnats are really known as fungus gnats. They live and lay eggs on damp soil where they find and eat fungi. Fungus gnats are slim and colored either dark gray or black and can survive cold air like no other known insects.

 Fruit flies are round and can be either tan or black and have distinctly red eyes. feed and breed on overly ripe produce and only live indoors according to Mr. Google. They die if the temperature gets too cold. I’m taking the information about the red eyes with a pinch of salt. I’ve never made eye contact with bugs that small.

While these fruit flies and gnats are very irritating when they fly around in your face, neither of them bite. Also, neither of them carries and spread diseases. To get rid of fruit flies, all we must do is get rid of overripe fruit, vegetable cuttings and open containers of sweet liquid.

Getting rid of fungus gnats is harder. The website suggested allowing the plant soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, treating the soil with nematodes, or plant-friendly solutions to kill larvae.

Shortly after Christmas the fungus gnats seemed to disappear from Agnes’ house. One morning in February she told me that she’d found a frog in her kitchen sink. A couple of weeks later, she discovered a second frog on one of her plants! They move from place to place. When Agnes needs to use the kitchen sink, she moves the frog out of harms way. We wondered, “What have they been eating all winter? Are the frogs the reason the fungus gnats mysteriously disappeared?”

One day as I looked at the pictures she’s taken of the frogs, I guessed, “I think they look like Gray Tree frogs.” Then I teased, “In my book, they classify as new pets! You now have two little froggies and a doggie. Have you picked out names for them yet?”