BUGS!!!

[launderess]

Oh Lord

I thought men were supposed to be the brave ones and kill insects and small varmits? What good is having one around if one has to do the deed themselves? *LOL*

You all have not seen "bugs" until you've clapped eyes on the monster sized NYC sewer cockroaches that come up into cellars and homes when the weather is very humid.

We have had several weeks of very hot and humid weather; last week was watching television when one was walking across our living room floor like he was General MacArthur. Ran into the kitchen and got my can of "Raid" from under the sink and after a few sprays the thing was dead. Mind you he tried to out run me and it took more than one spray to put it out of it's misery, but in the end the dead bug was swept up and duly flushed down the powder room loo.

Now if it had been a mouse, rat or snake, would have moved home to mother's.

Launderess

 

[foraloysius]

I had heard so many stories about cockroaches that I expected to step on one the moment I would get out of the cab. I haven't seen a single one though during the weeks I was in NYC. And that was during very hot and humid weather.

BTW, I had a good laugh over some of the posts here. But then again we don't get big spiders, snakes and whatever other big bugs.

 

[chestermikeuk]

No Roaches Here

Thankfully we dont get anything like that here, although the spiders are getting bigger!!!

AND if we had to vacuum them I`d have to use a cylinder, couldnt be doing with it spinning through the fan...

Enjoy the heat its a miserly 16d here...

Cheers

Mike

 

[DADoES]

I'd LOVE to have some 16°C.

 

[agiflow]

partscounterman

Your post had me laughing so hard my sides hurt. I'm not to keen on bugs myself, but this post really made my day. Too funny!

Pat

 

[partscounterman]

Snake Removal Service?

OMG! The snake in the dryer lint filter is TOO much! So glad there are no snakes in Hawai'i!

Ill bet the bill for the snake removal was huge at 11:00 on a sunday night but I'll bet they don't get any lip about what they charge either.

 

[DADoES]

I recall a service call on which a rather large snake had crawled in and was wrapped around the (Whirlpool dryer) blower wheel. That was tricky.

 

[tolivac]

In the Mini-Emptor in one Kirby G4 I got as a trade in for a Tri-Star-the vac was owned by an older woman-I was at home cleaning up the machine and found a Dead and VERY dehydrated snake .Was almost preserved.Was a baby one of some sort-about 3"long.It didn't get chopped up in the fan either.also at some transmitter site-something about generators-snakes like to crawl in them-tested one-and the snake "resident" was chopped and cooked at the same time-made a horrible unmistakable odor.I am sure some generator tech had fun cleaning the dead snake out of it.The smell from the gen went away after a while.Snakes and the mice don't really frighten me either.I just don't let the dangerous snake bite me.Sometimes they are cooked to beyond recognition in the transmitters, or AM transmitter site tower phasers,ATU's.That RF cooks 'em up good!!Sometimes they may even start a fire.-esp mice-their nesting material burns well-esp when they use old shredded transmitter logs as nesting material!!Thats a good resan I kept the logs that were older than 3 years out of the sites.
At the Wash DC plant I worked at(studios) they too had the HUGE Cockroaches-You could almost ride the things.You would be sitting at a desk and see a "shadow" going across your tabletop-it was a giant cockroach crawling thru the ceiling flourescent lamp!!When you stepped on one crawling across the floor in the hall-made the LOUDEST CRUNCH!!-then made a brownish yellow spot on the floor the janitor had a time cleaning off.

 

[partscounterman]

Launderess-

If you are looking for big brave he-men to dispatch the creepy crawlies, well girl you are hanging with the wrong bunch. LOL!

 

[tolivac]

The best way to dispatch the buggies is to suck them into a fan first or direct air vacuum.The vac fan will usually chop them.In an indirect air vac-bag first-the airflow will dehydrate the bugs if you run the vac long enough-several minutes.the airflow thru the bugs breathing spiracles will dry out their internal organs.the vacuum cleaner forces air thru the spiracles faster than the bug's system intended for its normal breathing.In either of these methods-you will need to change the vacuum bag often becuase the dead bugs will smell.I picked up many flies one time and the bag was---it was worth replacing it.

 

[launderess]

You're talking to a gal who sat through Deliverance twice and was not impressed, so guess I can handle vermin and varmits. Worse comes to worse there is always a Glock. *LOL*

Possum stew anyone?

Launderess

 

[compwhiz128]

Oh waaahh they are just bugs guy! The only bugs im afraid of are bees.

I swear I should smack the, syche. LOL!

 

[tolivac]

Need the Glock for the two legged "bugs" that steal my lawn mowers!Hit too many possums and reccons at night with my car!"Deliverance" kinda bored me.

 

[toggleswitch]

LOL - vacuum "trap"

Did this once out of necessity. Had a lower-level studio apt in Queens (part of NYC) once.

Got really crazed with bugs, so I sprayed every corner, nook and cranny (I dont like toxins in my home, so you KNOW I was annoyed!!) anyway I sprayed where the steam pipe came into my apt near the ceiling and then again where it went out.

Apparently there was a roach nest just at the other end of that there wall where the pipe came in, which happened to be the bathroom.

Well, after using the facilites for a major purge I shut the door until the air was again breathable. (Yes the window was open a tad.) When I went back in, there was a F _ _ _ ING roach parade all along the walls.

I had no choice but to get the vacuum and suck 'em in.

One hand with the wand in it, the other over my mouth to stop myself from hurling.

*AH SWEET MEMORIES OF CITY LIFE!!!*

That bag got changed so fast it was like an electron cloud.

 

[whirlcool]

Roaches In Apartments

When we first moved to Texas we lived in an temporary apartment that was a Roach Hotel. A neighbor gave me a trick to use that worked really well.
Take a can of Boric Acid (available at most pharmacies) and then take off your electrical outlet covers and dump two or three tablespoons of the stuff in the wall. Then take your vacuum cleaner and put it on "blow" and put the hose in the wall for thirty seconds or so. This will distribute the boric acid in the wall. Replace outlet covers. Make sure you do this at each outlet cover in the home or apartment.
We didn't have any more roaches (not even one!) for the next five months we lived their. Not even any of our neighbors had any either!

 

[tolivac]

toggleswitch: I can relate to your expereince-cockroaches LOVE apartment houses!! The buildings harbor all kinds of 'em.when the landlords have the exterminator spray your apartment(the landlord means well and is TRYING to rid the place of the "Deedlers")but the effort ends up chasing them into your apartment then they spray yours-then drives the bugs to the neighbors house and so on.The roaches get to visit everybody living in the building before they finally die out.It's like a scene from a roach horror movie-I had a cloth bag Kirby at the time and had to WASH the Kirby bag to rid the roach smell-since of course the roaches and their bug friends were "mulched" in the Kirby fan.After that experience got vacs that had the paper bags so you could throw them down the trash chute when full or had the bug smell.I also don't like the bug spray "toxins" in my home either-if it can kill bugs--it can kill you.I had to wash down the sinks and tub in the apartment after their "bug hunter" visited.Left his spray residue UNDER the sin ks though.Had to vacuum the roach bodies that collected.-and their egg cases.

 

[jerry]

Critters

I will agree with Launderess that if a mouse,rat or snake is in my house I am outta there ! I would rather have a mean dog after me than a mouse. I was repairing a ladies Whirlpool dryer many years ago when I pulled the control panel forward I found a electrocuted mouse .I told her she was lucky .She asked me if that mouse could have set her dryer on fire. I said that if it would have been alive I would have grabbed my light and tools and been out of there so fast she wouldnt have known what hit her.She asked if I would knock her down and let her lie ? I said yes but only if that mouse was alive .

 

[bostonwash]

mouse in the house

mice are cute. I had white ones as pets as a kid. But they don't belong in your house eating and making mess.

Glue traps are fun because if you put a dab of peanut butter in very center they get stuck while trying to reach it. And if you find them when still alive they look at you and they try and move but they're feet are stuck. They may even try and bite even though they are as good as dead. I had at least a dozen once living in a basement cinder blocks. I would catch them, then use a pliers to grab them, pry them from the trap then hold them under water in the toilet until drowned and then flush. But you need to make sure all edges of the glue trap that dont' have glue on are cut off so they can't use it for leverage to escape.

Roaches!! EWWwwwe

give me ants, bees, mice, earwigs, even an occasional snake but please, no roaches ! I've heard that Cammelians as pets in Florida are popular because they eat them.

Does anyone know what those little aligator like "pests" that climb up interior walls in Florida are called?

Steve

 

[launderess]

I Hate Meces to Pieces

Or whatever that cartoon cat said about those two little mice.

Was watching BBC news last night and apparently some remote island which is home to nesting and breeding sea birds has a mouse problem. Well the island is not inhabited that much by humans if at all IIRC, but the humans and ships which did land there in the past brought along mice.

Each year the sea birds return to this island to breed and rear their young, and it is the young baby birds the mice are eating *ALIVE*. Apparently the mice simply come upon a nesting baby bird and simply start feeding upon it, eating away it's internal organs. The news program showed this (night vison cameras) and it quite put me off dinner. Oh yes, the mice existing on this high protien diet have over the generations grown to three times the size of the common house mice they are descended from (BBC also showed this, and yes the damn things are *HUGE*. Imagine mice the size of small rats. Small,fat rats that is.

The high protein diet these mice live on also means they have quite allot of fat reserves and survive the winter quite well when they would normally die of cold and lack of food (nesting birds do not over winter on the island).

Long story short unless something is done soon, the birds will die out as over 90% of the baby birds are being eaten alive by the varmits. Apparently there is a way of dealing with this problem sucessfuly; it envolves air lifting massive amounts of mouse poison and is quite expensive, but has worked with similar situations on other islands.

So when head for that secluded island holiday, check you accomodations for mice. If they are waiting with little bibs and knives and forks at the ready, run fast and run far!

 

[DADoES]

OMG!