City dwelling is hard on apostrophe placement.
I've also been drinking leftover cosmopolitans from Christmas.
Iv'e not seen a roach in my current house.
If that apostrophe is meant sardonically, I'll have you know I take offense.
There are mice. They gnawed a new door in the back of the gingerbread house. I only wish I was kidding.
We had a terrible mouse problem about ten years ago, then the building hired a new porter who terminated them all with extreme prejudice, but now they're back, and I'm not happy about it. My apartment has vermin.
Have I mentioned that my life is a shambles? The children seem to be surviving all right despite the unsanitary conditions, but I'm a mess.
My rat/mouse problem has been solved for now by glue traps, Mexican day laborers, and my neighbor's otherwise questionable decision to provide food for a growing colony of feral cats. She was unloading a 150lb feed bag this morning.
Cats really are quite effective at killing rodents (and lots of other things).
You just need wolves to control the cats.
When I moved the stove last month or so, I confirmed that my long ago patching of the hole in the garage was indeed blocking the route of mice into the house. So much mouse shit was under the stove.
14: Me? No. There was a big one last night in a different part of Alaska, but it was too far away for us to feel it here.
I just saw a headline and wondered.
Yeah, it seems to have made national news. It's the biggest one in quite a while, at least for that area.
Its always good to have the pack of feral cats on your side.
Cats will indeed fix up a rodent problem right quick. Not necessarily a more humane solution than traps... but really, fuck rodents when it comes right down to it. When a thing can kill you with hantavirus, you do in fact need to kill that thing.
As for roaches: Dude, "roach" is not the preferred nomenclature. "Attenborough," please.
Even after reading Gregor the Overlander, you poison roaches? Think of Tick! And Temp, who gave her life for Boots.
We had a sewer pipe backup in the basement a few months sho so we had to remove bags of clothes stored there. One bag started squeaking, found a litter of 8 one day old rat babies in one bag where the clothes had been chewed into a nest. I have gone through several place packs of bromethalin since then. Every time I see one pack chewed open I add another.
Is Alaska too cold for roaches (teo?)? This is a serious question, btw. Well, semi-serious.
Also, yes: take no prisoners, show no mercy, and kill whatever damn vermin you find in your house (or apartment, as the case may be). Remember the bubonic plague, people! I'm just saying.
I've never seen any, but it's possible there are some, at least in the larger urban areas.
Hah!
Trapnel can back up part of this. I have been through two heat treatments, one poison-the-walls and one inspection for bedbugs *that do not and never have existed* in our apartment.
The heat treatments blew up some electronics that I forgot about, melted some modeling wax on other things that I was sad to have ruined (again, forgot it was there) and somehow resulted in a fire extinguisher going missing (no fucking idea). I think some other things, I'm blocking that out.
Yes, forgetting to get shit that can't stand 140F heat is my fault. OTOH, Being called upon to evacuate everything on a couple of day's notice is a pain, about and reserve the right to be bitter, especially when it concerns a certain neighbor.
Oh, some useful expendables like epoxies, glues, some solvents, vinyl pants, and bondage tape were toasted. Not like I've worn those in a long time. Er, most of the adhesives were not for wearing.
SO GROSS.
This and the last place I lived have always had the outsides teeming and rustling with roaches, (big, flying 2" water bugs, mind you) but inside were easily controlled with roach hotels. Right on schedule, roaches show up when you need to replace the motels, and that's that.
I don't think I've appreciated how much worse it might be when they're driven inside to escape the cold.
Water bugs aren't roaches, are they? I thought they were more innocuous even if creepy-looking.
Insomnia! Or maybe not. For me it's "just woke up from disturbing dream and reluctant to have another".
It is gross. When I was in The Crappy Place in NYC, roaches crawled out of my coffee maker one morning. Went to work without eating, and I suspect the coffee I bought on the way was no better, but let's not talk about the past.
Water bugs aren't roaches, are they? I thought they were more innocuous even if creepy-looking.
Uh, are northern roaches harmful? These don't bite you or anything.
Although the grossest thing that's ever happened to me was when I woke up in my old apartment and one of them was eating the scab on my elbow.
Are you sure? It was little, old white paper, smelled like old pot...
Uh, are northern roaches harmful? These don't bite you or anything.
Wikipedia is revealing that I'm very confused, but I thought the larger flying ones were not really roaches and mostly live outside, and aren't really pests in the sense of getting into your food and eating it. But I might have in mind the palmetto bug, which apparently is a kind of cockroach, although Wikipedia agrees it isn't a major pest. Then there are true water bugs which aren't roaches, although I'm not sure any of the bugs I learned to call "water bugs" actually fall in that category.
And now I've done a Google image search and my skin is crawling.
Palmetto bugs is what we've got. Now that you brought up that word, I'm not sure exactly why my brain reached for "water bugs" instead of "palmetto bugs".
My Mom insisted the giant roaches that lived in the old swimming pool and came into the house were actually "Chinese Water Beetles."
They get inside, but not in large, dense quantities that you'd find nesting under some planter that you hadn't moved in years. Generally not in your food and pantry, either, just your scabs. And easily controlled with roach hotels IME.
However, the flying and sheer size is traumatic.
Oh, and the smell, mentioned in the wiki article, smells like Cherry Coke. The first time I had Cherry Coke, I found it super nauseating due to that instant association.
Roach hotels are the leather elbow patches of heebieville.
Once in a studio apartmen, I was woken up by the sound of a roach chewing some burnt residue off a pan. Surpringly loud.
Bastard! I'm all for chemical war with those things. They make me go Moby.
Thread jack/Crowdsourcing: what should we name our tough mudder team? Team consists of decrepit middle aged men. "Supertanker Full of Hookers" is leading current balloting.
In grad school, our soccer team was "The Eulers" which I always thought was funny. You could use that.
We actually have the freakishly giant roaches that may be water bugs or palmetto bugs or something -- definitely over an inch long, and not what I think of as standard NY roaches.
Eulers=REJECTED. I would like to do something apparently deadly earnest but not actually earnest, like "All Glory Be To God." But no one shares my sense of humor.
But no one shares my sense of humor.
...I can see why.
The Thundercats
The Holograms
The Hong Kong Cavaliers
Aw, the kids and Jammies are back. My super fab husband took them to the park and let me squander away the morning drinking coffee and playing online.
They don't fly. I'm trying to do something liniment based for the team -- the Ben-Gay Blades? Icy-Hot Stuff? But I'm not getting anything actually funny.
The Holograms
Halford could be Gem.
"DEATH TO THE NATION OF INFIDELS"
I guess that could be read as, like, the Dead rather than the dead. DEATH TO DEADS?
Dammit. I'm trying to make fun of Halford but these are gold.
Nasty, Brutish, and Short
REALLY SERIOUS COMMANDO MANS OF STRUGGLE
Unfrozen Caveman Professionals.
You should be able to build something from this:
"A Cornell man, a Deke, a perfect asshole." Thus did Norman Mailer introduce Lieutenant Dove, literature's first asshole, in the 1948 novel The Naked and the Dead.
The "Palmetto bug" variant of roaches charge when wounded.
Downtown Sasquatch!
Downton 'Squatch?
We had the Great War on House Spiders and their Hobo Spider Friends earlier this year. I contributed by telling shiv that the spiders must die; he put down the traps and more importantly picked them back up when they were full of spiders.
I never heard of a spider trap, but I appreciate the irony of it.
and smaller mites to bite 'im
I like many of these, but particularly 56. This isn't a crossfit/paleo crew so some of those jokes would have to go.
What about "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"?
Or...The Boston Celtics?
I don't know, maybe just "Go, Celtics!" works better.
I'm trying to do something liniment based for the team
Sorry to make this the meetup blog (well at least I didn't threadjack the entry that is 12 comments young) but could I incite an Austin meetup sometime around February 14-15-16? Or are you guys tired of each other?
Eulers=REJECTED
Weekend at Bernoulli's
This post reminds me of an ongoing issue with my shower. I noticed a while ago that the shower head seemed to be leaking behind the wall (some of the water would come out from behind the wall around the edges of the shower head), and before long the wall around the head had some obvious water damage. I pointed it out to the landlord, who pointed it out to the home builder, who has yet to act on it. Anyway, then the water damage got some mold on it. Then there were these bugs that looked like centipedes that would emerge from behind the wall whenever I took a shower. I guessed that they were eating the mold. Now, however, the bugs no longer appear. So I assume that the problem has gotten much worse inside the wall, where the bugs are procreating like mad and plotting their takeover of the rest of the house. I should probably email my landlord again soon.
The millipedes and spiders fight over our basement. As long as they let me to put stuff away, I'm not going to worry about it.
88 is terrifying. Do email your landlord before the entire bathroom drops through its rotted joists.
We have something happening along the lines of 88, but it's in property we own, so we don't have to do anything! I mean, so we're extra double terrified. Water damage to the wall behind the shower, ants, now water seeping up from between the tile.
We have been house-hunting and hoping to forestall home repairs until we're moved out, but that's no longer viable.
||
Speaking of our house hunt, how much cash do you think a cool, artsy couple would forego because they like a buyer? We connected with them while looking at their house--Mrs. K-sky's flagrant gravidity helps, with the ladies--and wrote a nice note alongside an offer at listing price. But my intuition was that the house would go for 20% over listing, and that matched up with the Zestimate.
Some facts: the listing price is double what they paid for it; they own another home into which they're moving; the house was a little trashed, suggesting that they might underestimate its value, but I can't imagine many other buyers will.
We've been outbid on a ton of stuff, including one where we went 10% over asking and it went for 27% over asking. If it goes up as much as I think it will, I know we'll be sorrowfully passed over. But if it stays close...
|>
89: I accidentally left the light on in the basement a couple of weeks ago and the spiders accumulated so much door-space in the day before I noticed it that I left it on for a week before summoning the nerve to return.
The "Palmetto bug" variant of roaches charge when wounded.
And this is why, when one would show up in my apartment when I lived in Brooklyn, I would kill it with a 2x4 while screaming.
Roaches are pretty unusual here. I can only assume they don't like damp. My brother thinks he saw silverfish though in my hot press (airing cupboard) - there is a dripping pipe which overflows occasionally if I forget to change the container.
. I noticed a while ago that the shower head seemed to be leaking behind the wall (some of the water would come out from behind the wall around the edges of the shower head), and before long the wall around the head had some obvious water damage. I pointed it out to the landlord, who pointed it out to the home builder, who has yet to act on it.
This happened to us because of hard water buildup on the holes in the showerhead. It stopped happening after soaking the showerhead in CRL solution for a few minutes.
Aren't house spiders basically beneficial?
91.2: That's really a question about person temperament and how much anxiety you guys have around locking down a house you like.
Especially being pregnant, my inclination would be to be totally risk-averse and just want to lock it down and start nesting and not budge for the next twenty years. But I'm also the person who has lived in two locations since I graduated college, and one location from 0-18 years.
96: generally, yes. But when we lived in Oklahoma, we had gazillions of brown recluses living in our attic. I imagine they were doing more good than harm up there, but it was still alarming. If we had had children back then, we probably would have moved and nuked the house from space.
We also had a family of armadillos living in the back yard, and that was awesome. Armadillo pups are outstanding. Actually, there are no armadillos that aren't outstanding; the pups are just exceptionally so.
I don't think I've seen a living armadillo.
Speaking of our house hunt, how much cash do you think a cool, artsy couple would forego because they like a buyer?
Fifty cents, if you give them two quarters.
gazillions of brown recluses living in our attic
I was very afraid of spiders until I was about 20 and every now and then a phrase will bring that fear roaring back!
Think about the armadillo pups instead. That's what I used to do.
Nothing at all bad about armadillos
Lie back and think about England.
106: Or think back and lie about England.
Nothing at all bad about armadillos
So, do they really taste like chicken?
101 is along my thinking. My guess is that the goodwill gets us an offer to compete with their highest bidder -- and I bet that will be at least $30k above our offer, possibly $70k.
Some spiders are beneficial and some are not, and determining which is which would require me to be able to look at them without freaking out.
I don't think I've seen a living armadillo.
When I was a kid, we found a very sick one in a window well at our house. It took us a while to figure out what it was, because why would there be an armadillo in mid-Missouri? It's quite a bit less rare (though still not a regular occurrence) to see them around now, from what I understand.
Also, re. 105, curing leprosy requires taking antibiotics for one to two years?!!
Leprosy is caused by a mycobacterium, like tuberculosis and not much else. Compared to other bacteria they can grow very slowly, and have more impenetrable cell walls.
We've gotten occasional ant infestations that I've been able to drive back with nothing more than coffee grounds, but so far that's been it here, thank goodness. I mean, flies get in sometimes in the summer and I hope this was the only summer when that will make Mara scream and flail, but not even the basement snakes of my youth.
Also, we decided this year to switch back from couples counseling to having the house cleaned twice a month, which should do more good for Lee's attitude and perhaps the whole relationship, and just had our first visit. I'm a little disappointed by how clean they got our kitchen sink because the last cleaner never did and that let me feel secure that my cleanish was as good as it gets. But no, it can sparkle in its pristine whiteness and remind me that I should do more and better scrubbing.
My apartment complex does a spraying for roaches twice a year, and still there are occasional roaches to be found. Not too long ago I was woken by one crawling on my face. Very unpleasant.
114: I can't recommend boric acid highly enough. It comes in the form of a white powder (which is at least reasonably non-toxic to vertebrates), and you spread it in corners -- where floors meet walls, edges of cabinet shelves, corners of drawers. After I do what's described in the OP (and you don't actually have to empty your kitchen completely), I don't see another roach for over a year, and the building definitely has them.
I will have to try this boric acid thing. After I google to ensure it's cat safe.
I tried figuring that out for the dog, and got confused. I think the problem is that it is toxic in the "Don't eat it by the spoonful, it'll make you sick" sense, but not in small amounts, so cautious pet owners are all over the interwebs saying that it's toxic to animals. But I don't think it's a problem, unless maybe you had an animal with a habit of obsessively licking the baseboards.
117: i have heard of both a cat and a dog that would go along behind owner licking baseboards after owner sprayed raid (or something similar).
It's safe, but nowhere near as effective as the more serious forms of chemical warfare. The sight of dozens of roaches on their backs, twitching out their death throes the morning after I deployed a neurotoxic gel was very satisfying. Less pet safe, I'll grant.
Where it wins, for me, is on persistence. People who rely on neurotoxins seem to be doing it all the time. Boric acid, if you cover all the relevant areas, lasts for literally over a year.
Fortunately, I've never had roaches when I've had pets. The one mouse I've found in my current place I suspect died of fright when it learned of the unnatural predator density in my home.
121: Repeated applications just mean you get that glorious slaughter more often.
I'm just as happy to never see a dead roach, so long as I never see a live one.
REALLY SERIOUS COMMANDO MANS OF STRUGGLE
This is the one.
I've been wondering how much traditional housekeeping does to reduce pests, and how much was an exasperated response to pests' presence. Surely boiling all the cloth several times a year, and rubbing wax, oil, and turps into all the hard surfaces, and shifting everything around regularly *helped* with the bugs and the rodents. (And having a cat and a terrier, too.) Beating carpets removes dust that vacuums won't budge. But it's so much work, unless you have really spartan or Shaker furnishings.
19: Cats will indeed fix up a rodent problem right quick.
Or can cause one. Our previous cat had a habit of bringing "little friends" into the house still alive, where they would try to make their escape into the nearest hidey-hole once he released them. Mice, birds, lizards, even (we think) a scorpion or two. (That is, the presence of the scorpion was definite; we suspect the same known mechanism as the other critters.)
One mouse took up residence in the back of the computer cabinet, where he/she shredded the insulation off the wires to make a nest. We took a photo when we discovered it, and sent it out with the Christmas letter that year, entitled "Mouse Pad."
19: Cats will indeed fix up a rodent problem right quick.
Or can cause one. Our previous cat had a habit of bringing "little friends" into the house still alive, where they would try to make their escape into the nearest hidey-hole once he released them. Mice, birds, lizards, even (we think) a scorpion or two. (That is, the presence of the scorpion was definite; we suspect the same known mechanism as the other critters.)
One mouse took up residence in the back of the computer cabinet, where he/she shredded the insulation off the wires to make a nest. We took a photo when we discovered it, and sent it out with the Christmas letter that year, entitled "Mouse Pad."
19: Cats will indeed fix up a rodent problem right quick.
Or can cause one. Our previous cat had a habit of bringing "little friends" into the house still alive, where they would try to make their escape into the nearest hidey-hole once he released them. Mice, birds, lizards, even (we think) a scorpion or two. (That is, the presence of the scorpion was definite; we suspect the same known mechanism as the other critters.)
One mouse took up residence in the back of the computer cabinet, where he/she shredded the insulation off the wires to make a nest. We took a photo when we discovered it, and sent it out with the Christmas letter that year, entitled "Mouse Pad."
19: Cats will indeed fix up a rodent problem right quick.
Or can cause one. Our previous cat had a habit of bringing "little friends" into the house still alive, where they would try to make their escape into the nearest hidey-hole once he released them. Mice, birds, lizards, even (we think) a scorpion or two. (That is, the presence of the scorpion was definite; we suspect the same known mechanism as the other critters.)
One mouse took up residence in the back of the computer cabinet, where he/she shredded the insulation off the wires to make a nest. We took a photo when we discovered it, and sent it out with the Christmas letter that year, entitled "Mouse Pad."
113: but not even the basement snakes of my youth
Oh, you had a basement popcorn maker?
113: but not even the basement snakes of my youth
So true. Where are the basement snakes of yesteryear?
In Houston we found boric acid helped control the roaches, but in no way did it stop them completely.