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Wild critters
Jan. 30th, 2010 05:45 pmThere have been all manner of fun goings-on in my kitchen this last day or so. Last night, I had an encounter with one of those HUGE revolting American cockroaches. Ggggggh. I managed to trap it in an old Chinese food container and got rid of it that way, but man, they give me the shits. I've been here for 18 months now, and haven't seen them before, but maybe this weather has brought them out.
I've now festooned everywhere around my stove with long-life baits, and I'm hoping I won't see any more. I might prefer not to have too many toxic chemicals in my life, but when it comes to cockroaches, fuck it. I've been having mild (but sympathetic, honest) chuckles about people's encounters with spiders lately (not a problem for me), so perhaps this is Karma.
Then today I opened up my pantry, only to find zillions of moths flying out at me. I've had to toss out almost every nut and grain product I owned. I feel about as happy about weevils as I do cockroaches, and I'm normally pretty anal about freezing any nut or grain product to kill any potential weevils before I put them in the cupboard. I must have missed something (possibly some popcorn I bought a few weeks back). I had a few things in the thin plastic bags that I'd scooped things like rice and lentils into from the bulk bins, and the fuckers had eaten through the bags, which were actually well-sealed at the top. There were all these little tiny holes through the plastic. I'd left the lid of one of my plastic rice tubs slightly unsealed, barely a millimetre - that was enough. My screwtop muesli jar had suspicious amounts of flakey stuff at the bottom and throughout the muesli (I only bought it a few days ago), so that was tossed.
Yuck yuck yuck yuck. I might have looked like a complete tool wearing rubber gloves to carry the two bags of stuff I had to toss to the big rubbish hoppers, but I don't care. It's better than letting any of that shit touch me. I've been "airing" the pantry for a few hours, and nothing further has flown out of it lately. I suppose I need to start scrubbing the shelves. Ick.
I've now festooned everywhere around my stove with long-life baits, and I'm hoping I won't see any more. I might prefer not to have too many toxic chemicals in my life, but when it comes to cockroaches, fuck it. I've been having mild (but sympathetic, honest) chuckles about people's encounters with spiders lately (not a problem for me), so perhaps this is Karma.
Then today I opened up my pantry, only to find zillions of moths flying out at me. I've had to toss out almost every nut and grain product I owned. I feel about as happy about weevils as I do cockroaches, and I'm normally pretty anal about freezing any nut or grain product to kill any potential weevils before I put them in the cupboard. I must have missed something (possibly some popcorn I bought a few weeks back). I had a few things in the thin plastic bags that I'd scooped things like rice and lentils into from the bulk bins, and the fuckers had eaten through the bags, which were actually well-sealed at the top. There were all these little tiny holes through the plastic. I'd left the lid of one of my plastic rice tubs slightly unsealed, barely a millimetre - that was enough. My screwtop muesli jar had suspicious amounts of flakey stuff at the bottom and throughout the muesli (I only bought it a few days ago), so that was tossed.
Yuck yuck yuck yuck. I might have looked like a complete tool wearing rubber gloves to carry the two bags of stuff I had to toss to the big rubbish hoppers, but I don't care. It's better than letting any of that shit touch me. I've been "airing" the pantry for a few hours, and nothing further has flown out of it lately. I suppose I need to start scrubbing the shelves. Ick.