(no subject)

[strange_aeons]

Speaking of arthropods, I just had another of those exciting moments where I discover a wasp -- actually, I think this one was a yellowjacket -- crawling across the kitchen floor only because one of the cats is considering playing with it. I have no idea how they're getting in the house, though I'm sure there are countless points of ingress; what troubles me is that it's almost always the kitchen floor. I dearly wish we could just get an exterminator in here, but we've got wellwater, not reservoir water, and drenching the exterior of the house in insecticide, attractive a proposition though it is, would probably kill us all.

Have I mentioned that I'm not looking forward to fall? I'm considering just spending the entire winter sitting in the car and bathing in the bathroom sink at the gas station down the road. Given the way things are already heading, I don't know how else I'm going to get through it with anything resembling my sanity intact, and this environment prevents me from getting my shit together enough to do anything to remove myself from the environment in question.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Have you actually talked to an exterminator? I suspect that there are plenty of things that they can do other than drenching the outside of the house in sufficient insecticide to get into the well-water.... And a quality exterminator would take your concerns seriously enough to find something that wouldn't be a problem and explain why it wouldn't be.

(This, incidentally, is a tautology. If they don't, no matter how reputable they are, find a different exterminator.)

- Brooks

[kiya]

< petunias > Oh no, not again. < /petunias >

Not tautologies. ;)

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd talk to my roommate, who's done the research I haven't, before I answered you. Actually, I talked to her night before last, but have I mentioned I'm forgetful?

The problem isn't really the spiders and yellowjackets. (Actually, the yellowjackets are a problem unto themselves -- which see the post I'm going to write shortly.) I could deal with any number of spiders -- which, being predators, are likely to occur only in sensible densities -- if it weren't for the ladybugs. And there's nothing we can do about the ladybugs, because it's not possible to kill them before they get into the house. They would die lodged in the points of ingress in question, and when they died they would release that fucking smell, which would attract more ladybugs. Repeat until dead. I've actually observed this phenomenon myself, on those occasions when I couldn't deal with it any more and pesticided the bathroom. (Which is a touchy location for me, because they insist on landing on me when I'm naked.)

Short of shrink-wrapping the entire house, or just replacing the building, there's nothing we can do about this. Even if we replaced all three doors and all seventeen or so windows, which we haven't the money for and which the landlord seems disinclined to do, they would come in through the gaps in the roof and around the foundation.

The lease is up in March.