Living Creatures, For Now
Normally I treat living creatures with care. For example, just two weeks ago I found a stray kitten in my parking lot, scooped her up in a soft towel, and paid for her veterinary care. I have two spiders thriving in my bathroom. However, when insects or arachnids harass me, I take them out.
One day I was buying a fly swatter and tactlessly remarked that there was gonna be a fly killing spree at my place. The saleslady blanched: "I don't kill anything. I figure they have as much right to be here as I do." I redeemed myself from my discourteousness by not pointing out that flies vomit on her food. You see, normally I am quite tactful.
However, if I would definitely hurt a fly, then you can only imagine what sort of rampage I might undertake to eradicate, say, a cicada in my bedroom ceiling. For the past eight days, about the average cicada lifespan, I have been tormented by cicada mating calls. My entire hit list consists of one item:
1) cicada.
First I sprayed the eaves with insecticide. That didn't work. My landlady was unable to get access to the attic crawlspace, so she bought me earplugs and called an exterminator. The exterminators were booked solid, so she drilled two holes in my ceiling and sprayed insecticide through them before resealing the holes, but there was a thick layer of insulation that she couldn't penetrate very well, and this attack strategy had no effect.
The earplugs prevented me from hearing my alarm clock so I overslept and was almost late to work, but I could still hear the cicada right above my head. My landlady cut a hole in my closet ceiling, threw up a bug bomb or two, and resealed the hole. The cicada moved to the exterior wall of my bathroom. It was quieter at first, but then another cicada moved into the living room ceiling, and at 4 a.m. the two of them began a serenade at full volume in nearly perfect unison. I put the earplugs back in.
This morning I sprayed insecticide on the back eaves and through the holes in my siding. Tonight the saga continues.
One day I was buying a fly swatter and tactlessly remarked that there was gonna be a fly killing spree at my place. The saleslady blanched: "I don't kill anything. I figure they have as much right to be here as I do." I redeemed myself from my discourteousness by not pointing out that flies vomit on her food. You see, normally I am quite tactful.
However, if I would definitely hurt a fly, then you can only imagine what sort of rampage I might undertake to eradicate, say, a cicada in my bedroom ceiling. For the past eight days, about the average cicada lifespan, I have been tormented by cicada mating calls. My entire hit list consists of one item:
1) cicada.
First I sprayed the eaves with insecticide. That didn't work. My landlady was unable to get access to the attic crawlspace, so she bought me earplugs and called an exterminator. The exterminators were booked solid, so she drilled two holes in my ceiling and sprayed insecticide through them before resealing the holes, but there was a thick layer of insulation that she couldn't penetrate very well, and this attack strategy had no effect.
The earplugs prevented me from hearing my alarm clock so I overslept and was almost late to work, but I could still hear the cicada right above my head. My landlady cut a hole in my closet ceiling, threw up a bug bomb or two, and resealed the hole. The cicada moved to the exterior wall of my bathroom. It was quieter at first, but then another cicada moved into the living room ceiling, and at 4 a.m. the two of them began a serenade at full volume in nearly perfect unison. I put the earplugs back in.
This morning I sprayed insecticide on the back eaves and through the holes in my siding. Tonight the saga continues.
Labels: self
posted by Margo at 6:30 PM
1 Comments:
Is it dead yet???
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