Hurl-worthy!
Apr. 10th, 2004 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellan_the_tabbySo we're sitting down to eat lunch, and Lewis pauses near a window. "Hey, wow, there's really a lot of little bugs over here."
So I think, gnats. It's spring. No problem.
He goes to get the fly-swatter and starts swatting with enthusiasm.
This keeps going, so I go to check.
NINE BILLION BILLION of what look like little flying ants. So we both start swatting.
We can't keep ahead of them; they're coming in through the walls.
Lewis sends me out for a vacuum cleaner and some bug-stuff, whie he stays to swat bugs and caulk up the crack in the windowsill.
When I return, there's a substantial pile of dead bugs and a lot of caulk. In my hurry, it seems I've bought entirely the wrong bug-stuff, but as it seems to be termites (horrors), there isn't stuff anyway and we'll need to call an exterminator.
Which Lewis does, without even a suggestion that maybe I could call. As I'm currently using one hand to wield the flyswatter and the other to cover my mouth, this is probably a wise choice.
Turns out that we're not infested; this is the swarming phase, which usually happens on nice warm spring days, and means they're _looking_ for a place to infest. So as long as we get rid of them promptly, we'll be fine.
The bug-people will be over Monday afternoon, so now all we do is clean up the dead ones, make sure they don't start coming in somewhere else, and wait.
Ideally without hurling in the process. My half-eaten sandwich is still sitting downstairs, and I ain't touching it; lunch seems to be Scotch to steady my nerves, which are jangling something areful.
On the up side, Windex will kill them, so we're both roaming the house with bottles of Windex, spraying anything that moves and isn't a cat.
Once it gets cool tonight we'll be out of danger, since it's supposed to be crappy tomorrow. But I just want to pack up the cats and a change of clothes and go SOMEWHERE ELSE until the bugs are ALL GONE.
Some days, I'm _such_ a girl.
So I think, gnats. It's spring. No problem.
He goes to get the fly-swatter and starts swatting with enthusiasm.
This keeps going, so I go to check.
NINE BILLION BILLION of what look like little flying ants. So we both start swatting.
We can't keep ahead of them; they're coming in through the walls.
Lewis sends me out for a vacuum cleaner and some bug-stuff, whie he stays to swat bugs and caulk up the crack in the windowsill.
When I return, there's a substantial pile of dead bugs and a lot of caulk. In my hurry, it seems I've bought entirely the wrong bug-stuff, but as it seems to be termites (horrors), there isn't stuff anyway and we'll need to call an exterminator.
Which Lewis does, without even a suggestion that maybe I could call. As I'm currently using one hand to wield the flyswatter and the other to cover my mouth, this is probably a wise choice.
Turns out that we're not infested; this is the swarming phase, which usually happens on nice warm spring days, and means they're _looking_ for a place to infest. So as long as we get rid of them promptly, we'll be fine.
The bug-people will be over Monday afternoon, so now all we do is clean up the dead ones, make sure they don't start coming in somewhere else, and wait.
Ideally without hurling in the process. My half-eaten sandwich is still sitting downstairs, and I ain't touching it; lunch seems to be Scotch to steady my nerves, which are jangling something areful.
On the up side, Windex will kill them, so we're both roaming the house with bottles of Windex, spraying anything that moves and isn't a cat.
Once it gets cool tonight we'll be out of danger, since it's supposed to be crappy tomorrow. But I just want to pack up the cats and a change of clothes and go SOMEWHERE ELSE until the bugs are ALL GONE.
Some days, I'm _such_ a girl.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 07:14 pm (UTC)But hey, our one recent rat doesn't look so squick-inducing now, by comparison. :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 07:28 pm (UTC)The treatment for termites these days isn't as traumatic except for the cost: they'll plant bait-stations _outside_ the house, and since the nest itself is outside, the poison will never come in.
They hadn't done much to the wood (just a few tiny tunnels) so no physical damage, either. We got off relatively easily.
The treatment won't be cheap, but problems that go away by simply throwing money at them are rare enough that right now I'm not feeling too bad about it.
Rats, though...yurgh. Given my cats, the number of pieces I would likely have found a rat in is something I'd rather not think about any...
Thank you for your kind wishes. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 07:42 pm (UTC)I shudder to think about where my cats could be hiding rat-corpses. In the entire 11 years I've had cats I've cleaned up a total of two mice and one rat, so at least I'm not finding 'em every week or the like... (And, y'know, it's just not fair. My house is clean, darn it! With luck, this was just a fluke.)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 08:09 pm (UTC)I think since we moved in we've had...maybe six or seven mice. I'm sure there's a couple in the basement I haven't found yet. Nothing the last few years, though, and I desperately hope that the mice have either moved out or gotten smart...
No matter what you do, there's always a _chance_ of a small fuzzy invasion, but cleanliness and cats will keep the vast majority of 'em out.