… and spring.
Since I have had posts on rats in rectories and skunks under houses, let’s have another one in which we can reflect on our mortal state and the fact that Eve tried the apple, and got Adam to do the same.
From And Sometimes Tea… which you can now buy from the Carmelites in Wyoming, in case you didn’t know.
Today, just to prove how a Monday can be, we had bugs start dropping from the ceiling. Freaky, earwig-like bugs. Except they had wings, twice as long as their bodies, and antennae that did not have a bend in them.
They were coming from a couple of vents, one in the girls’ bathroom [I’ll bet that went well.] and one in the living room. We vacuumed up bugs at twenty-minute intervals while waiting for the pest control guy to come by.
He came by as his last appointment of the day, around five p.m. He gave us the bad news: termites.
[…]
Commiserate with them over at And Sometimes Tea… and then buy some tea from the Mystic Monks.
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I work in the Diocese of Shreveport, where a local exterminator has a nationally televised show that follows him around as he helps customers with our local exotic (and dangerous/violent/venomous wildlife).
My old parish used that exterminator. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), they hadn’t started filming the show in time to get our call: bees in the Confessional. Hundreds of them. Buzzing. While the poor penitents try to muster the best contrition they can and ask if Father has an epipen.
Okay, so we moved Confessions to the rectory during that period, but could you imagine?
Actually, bees in swarm aren’t particularly dangerous, they are full of honey and in self-preservation mode and very rarely sting. You can scoop them up with your bare hands and put them in a cardboard box or a super (I use gloves and a veil because I’m a chicken). Call a beekeeper rather than an exterminator.
Beekeepers even use a swarm and a caged queen to make a bee beard (courtesy of U.Minn. extension service) to alarm the unsuspecting.
Thank you for the link, Father Z.! Is there a patron saint against insect infestations?
Luckily, my oldest girl is studying biology in our homeschool program this year, and she cheerfully collected some living specimens in jars so we could show them to the gentleman from the pest control company for proper identification. I am not that brave.
Can you possibly leave bowls of ammonia (or ammonia soaked rags) near the porch? This will get them out of there..
… I left the computer to see what the commotion was in the kitchen. (I had left the door to our attached garage open) Our 2 cats were playing with a shrew (too cute to be a mouse), I quickly got a jar (they had it cornered) and scooped it up, covered it with a lid and placed it under a bush outside (minus the lid).
Oh the joys…
Ah yes, Spring. Time for the termites to swarm. My husband and I had never seen that until last year when we saw a bunch of them flying out of a dead stump in the front yard, very close to the house. $1800 later we were the proud owners of a new termite control contract with the local pest control company and were assured our house was termite free.
When we bought this house 8 years ago, also in the Spring, our area was going through a rainy season. It rained for more than 40 days and 40 nights and it brought out the centipedes by the hundreds. Because they have a hard shell they are impervious to pest control sprays. The pest control people recommended that we vaccuum them up to get rid of them. So every day after work I came home and used the vaccuum cleaner hose to suck up literally hundreds of these things from all over the house, particularly at the corners of the rooms where the carpet met the wall, although I got a fair number of them off of the ceiling, too. Apparently in our area there is a bumper crop of centipedes every 8-10 years…
Sorry to hear about this hardship at the And Sometimes Tea household. Was going to say that perhaps since it is towards the end of the school year it won’t interfere so horribly into the school day…but it sounds like Red Cardigan has it covered…typical homeschoolers, the world is their oyster! Learning all the time…
Termites began swarming from the lofty ceiling of our church a couple of weeks ago, just as the TLM started. They were dropping on parishioners and concentrating around the front of the nave, near the sanctuary, making it hard for little altar boys to stay focused and causing me to take a harder look at whether my conscience would permit me to approach the Eucharist.
To my great amusement, the Communion prayer was “The sparrow hath found herself a house, and the swallow a nest, where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God: blessed are they that dwell in Thy House, they shall praise Thee for ever and ever.” Not just birds, apparently.
sorry, my comment above was meant for the skunks…..