Vermin
I sit at my desk here in my new apartment, typing away at my computer (I'm working from home today). Between me and the window are piles of boxes that I have yet to unpack. Suddenly, I hear little rattling, crackling sounds, like something rustling around in papers. I groan inwardly. With all the other challenges I've faced since moving in, do I also have a vermin problem to deal with? Am I hearing bugs or mice crawling around inside my boxes? I creep closer to the boxes to listen more closely, trying to remain stealthy so whatever is making the noise doesn't hear me. But the sound suddenly stops. Like a cricket that stops chirping at your approach, whatever it is must have heard me coming.
But there it is again. It's coming from near the window. Or the window sill itself? Maybe it's some kind of insect crawling around in the crack beneath the window and the sill? I move closer still, crane my neck to listen. A smile spreads across my face as sheepish recognition dawns on me. What I'm hearing is the sound of small hail pellets hitting the window! Duh!
Thankfully, no bug problem here -- at least not yet, not in wintertime. I've dealt with my share of vermin in the past.... There were the roof rats in Carmel Mountain; I killed ten of them over as many nights with traps before the problem finally went away. At my beach apartment in San Diego, scores of termites emerged from a hole they'd eaten through in the window sill. Coming home to find your window covered with winged insects is not a pleasant experience. And then there was my dorm room at USC... I scratched an itch on my face as I slept one night, and woke to find a dead cockroach in bed with me. So it wasn't an itch after all.
Hopefully this place will remain vermin-free when the weather warms up and the humidity rises.
But there it is again. It's coming from near the window. Or the window sill itself? Maybe it's some kind of insect crawling around in the crack beneath the window and the sill? I move closer still, crane my neck to listen. A smile spreads across my face as sheepish recognition dawns on me. What I'm hearing is the sound of small hail pellets hitting the window! Duh!
Thankfully, no bug problem here -- at least not yet, not in wintertime. I've dealt with my share of vermin in the past.... There were the roof rats in Carmel Mountain; I killed ten of them over as many nights with traps before the problem finally went away. At my beach apartment in San Diego, scores of termites emerged from a hole they'd eaten through in the window sill. Coming home to find your window covered with winged insects is not a pleasant experience. And then there was my dorm room at USC... I scratched an itch on my face as I slept one night, and woke to find a dead cockroach in bed with me. So it wasn't an itch after all.
Hopefully this place will remain vermin-free when the weather warms up and the humidity rises.
posted by Anonymous at
12:15 PM
1 Comments:
Reminds me of a night in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Marilyn, when your Uncle Jack was killed. No power, no water, temperature 95 degrees and humidity 99%. I could not sleep and my body was tingling like it does sometimes when you sweat. So I got up and took a shower using a bucket of water. After blindly getting back in bed it soon felt the same...this "tingling" feeling. So I got up again, rumaged around the place I was staying and found a flashlight. Back to my bed to see that it was full of thousands of small ants. I got a few hours sleep in a chair.
But do not worry, when Global Warming takes us all to the "promised land" the vermins will go also. Oh wait a minute...sleet on the window? Sounds like "cold" to me. Dad
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