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I think we've finally got our pest problem taken care of. Several weeks ago, we had flying termites invade our spare bedroom, despite being told by our pest-control company we need not worry about termite activity that had turned up in the yard near that room during an inspection less than a month previous.
The company (finally) dispatched a couple of yahoos to assess the situation. One was an intense grouch while the other mindlessly followed orders. Grouchy got a bit defensive and standoffish when we told him his company had detected termite activity a few weeks back but paid it no mind. He and his No. 2 poked around the room a bit; then he guessed that the termites seemed to be coming in from under the windows, though he couldn't say for sure whether they had gotten into the wall. Then he rolled his eyes. "Because of that hedge up against your house," he huffed, "we can't easily drill holes on the outside of the house to spray the poison into the wall." (Geez. Sorry for the inconvenience.) So what are the options? "Well we can tear out the hedge (I put a mental check into the "nope" column), drill from inside the room into your floor (dear God no) or hope for now they're not in the wall and treat the soil outside the house."
Great. Not my beautiful terrazzo floor. Did I just say that?
We decided to treat the soil next to the house and hope that took care of the pests. We'll worry about the hedge or the terrazzo if and when we get to that point. But for now, I haven't seen any termites lately, so let's hope they're gone.
As for the critters in the kitchen that I've seen slowly inching across the kitchen counter lately: The pest control company dispatched another person to handle this, who told us they're flour beetles. The man was pleasant enough but apparently was a bit of a Milton type who took bookish glee in describing every household pest known to man. Anyway, as it turns out, flour beetles are extremely common and don't require treatment, just a cleaning out of the cupboards of whatever they find yummy. We had some dry goods that were stowed there that were, um, a couple years old, from before we lived together. They're gone now.
Replies: 2 shoutouts
No conflict of interest there, Mr. Tupperware Man!!! :)
Posted by Huffy @ 04/07/2003 06:23 PM EST
Sounds like someone needs some Tupperware, hint..hint.
Posted by P @ 04/04/2003 09:03 AM EST