I've decided to come out of the closet.
No, not that closet!
This closet is the secret closet of infestation. I haven't fessed up about this because I'm afraid no one will want to come over here again, but I'm just going to suck it up. Because I have to talk about these problems!
We've been having a problem with infestations around here. I will list them in order of grossness. (least gross first)
1. Ants. Have mostly gone away. Were in the trash, dishwasher, and various cabinets. Now mostly just attacking the cat food. Outside.
2. Flies. Still there. Mostly outside. They also attack the cat food. For a while, we had put the kitchen trash (uncovered) outside (to avoid ant infestation). This was a Bad Idea. Flies seized on kitchen trash. And begat and begat and begat, producing, well, "baby flies". You do the math.
3. Rats. (shiver) Ever a problem here. Usually just in the attic. But we had one (please, God, only one!) in the garage. It was also attacking the cat food. But this time, the bin we keep the cat food in. This is how we knew it was there, because there were large chunks gnawed out of the container. It doesn't look like it actually gained access to the food, however. Perhaps the plastic satisfied its hunger. Dyami attacked the garage and we did a thorough cleaning. We think the rat is gone. At the very least, there aren't as many hiding places for it anymore.
4. Mice. (sigh.) Inside the house. (Ewwwwwwwww!) I kind of had a conniption when I found little, well, "mouse pellets" on the kitchen counter. Luckily, I had just learned about organic disinfecting! I attacked the "pellets" with vinegar and H2O2! Dyami set traps! We caught the mouse! End of story!
The major part of the infestations ended a few weeks ago.
Except.
Except I just found some more "pellets" in a drawer. There is a slight chance they were there before, and I just didn't see them but I think they are new. Because there were also some gnawed bits of a silicon muffin cup. Which I would have seen, since they were bright red.
So I spent a good half-hour this morning cleaning all of my kitchen tools (spatulas, measuring cups, etc) and disinfecting the drawers. Yummo!
What's next, locusts?
So now that I've come clean, I understand if no one wants to come over to my house, ever again. Really, we're doing everything we can to eliminate these pestilences. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free.
2 comments:
Well since we're out of the closet...
When my youngest boy was around eight he really, really wanted a rat for a pet. A cute white rate, who would be so smart and do tricks and they are so clean and oh, please mom. So we got a rat, just one. Except that his buddy also has a rat and he came to visit and then there were more rats, lots of them, in the rat maze. Or so I thought. It took me a while to realize that he was letting them out pretty regularly, so at any given time, there were several running free in the garage. He claimed that they would all come home at dinnertime and he would close them in at night. Over the years we have had a few rat visits in the garage (only once in the house) and we have just dealt with it. I have rarely given much thought to the rat pets, until a couple of years ago. One of our neighbors became quite ill and was having a very difficult time keeping up with the house and yard and such. None of the neighbors realized for quiet some time just how much trouble she was having, but there was a dramatic increase in the rat population. After a while one of the neighbors noticed that she had not taken the trash out to the curb for quiet some time and it was all over her yard. It was like a rat time-share, but she wasn't charging them. Well the professionals had to be called in, as the problem was bigger than just a couple of the neighbor guys putting out the trash. They tented and fumigated the whole thing. One of the pest control guys commented that he had never seen wild white rats before. They are usually domesticated. H.m.m.m.
But on the plus side, you don't seem to have any fruit flies. Or pantry moths. So there's that.
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