Monday, January 10, 2011

It's a jungle around here

I am not a fan of bugs, reptiles or small furry creatures like mice, rats, etc.  I am a lunatic when it comes to these things.  I would scream if from the rooftops if I could.

I think it all began in college when I moved to FL and quickly became introduced to the likes of roaches and ants  (all types of ants that I had no idea even existed.)  We were warned by our soccer coach that running barefoot, even on our beautiful Bermuda grass field should be avoided if we knew what was good for us...not getting bit by red ants that would leave a gross zit like bite on our body.  I also recall having the same roach lie on its back outside my freshman year dorm and squirm for a good 2 weeks before finally biting the bullet simply because there was no way I was going to touch it and as long as it stayed in that same spot and I could eye it...that was good enough for me.

My first apartment in college really drove into me my hatred of bugs.  My parents were visiting and my entire closet became infested with sugar ants...gross!!!!  I had ants in my clothes and all over everything.  Needless to say I am not a fan of ants.

A few years later I was living in San Francisco in a "dorm" while in culinary school.  Up until this point in my life I had never really been exposed to mice and rats but lucky for me, my building had a serious infestation problem.  Ever night I was woken up to the bite bite biting and chewing of mice.  One of the first nights in my room I woke up, flicked on the light and no joke, about 6 or so mice scurried across my floor.  GROSS GROSS GROSS.  ( I was a big fan of peanuts and had a huge Costco bag and they love 'em too!)  I became paranoid beyond belief!  I put towels on the floor on the inside and outside of my door in the hopes of stopping them from entering.  (little did I know that a mouse can get through an opening the size of a dime.)  In turn I moved to the top floor of the building somehow reassuring myself that mice wouldn't dare venture up that high...even though we all know that is pretty stupid reasoning.

Fast forward to my life now, back in sunny Florida and back to ants, roaches, mice, rats, possums, iguanas, snakes and everything in between.  We are lucky enough to live on a "lake."  I put it in quotes because lakes in Florida are definitely not the fun swimming holes I am used to growing up in upstate New York.  I would NEVER under any circumstance get into Florida lake due to the possibility of an alligator and mine especially because I believe it to be more of a run off type lake that could cause me to grow and extra toe or limb.  This lake is beautiful on the eyes, but home to many things I would rather not have scurrying around my house...snakes, turtles, rats, mice, possums, etc, etc, etc.  There are many mornings when a rather large rat will run past our back window.  I see the same mouse down snacking around my orange tree and in the warmer months, I have fished snakes out of our pool and been sitting on the pool's edge and looked a few feet away to see a black racer just sun bathing.  One afternoon while lying on my hammock I heard an unfamiliar noise and there was a snake right under the hammock.

We also have the same possum that I see do its morning workout of walking down the side of our yard, back by the lake and then many times walk right by our sliding glass door like we are in it's way.  (and lucky for me a few months back there were possum babies too!  JOY!)  So, snakes...check, mice and rats...check, possums...check.  What do we have left...of yes the mating iguanas that are shacking up in our tree.  Don't get me wrong they are a beautiful shade of lime green, but who wants these things making babies 15 feet from their house?  Not me!!!  And finally there are the turtles.  We had one bury itself 2 feet from our house, lay eggs and then proceed to stand on its hind legs and claw at our gate until Oz threw it into a recycle bin and toss it back to the lake.

So, all this brings me to today and our ant issues.  I will say it again I don't like ants.  Sugar ants are the worst because they are almost transparent and are so hard to get rid of.  We found a trail coming in our back door last week and this morning we found them in our master bathroom.  It sends me into a panic and I want them gone.  I truly am crazy and can envision a gang of ants taking over our house. Lucky for me Oz works the weekend and so today is his Saturday and thankfully he can deal with ridding the house of these pests.

4 comments:

  1. I HATE bugs and pests. OMG-the mice-GAG me!!!! We lived in Texas for awhile and cockroaches and fireants everywhere. SO nasty. Its too cold for anything to live here....including me....

    I'm backreading your posts. That broccoli is insane! Great job on the 21 miler. Love the recap!! Some runs are good, some not so good hey! Always good to be done though:) Nice work:) 21 will seem better in the race:)

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  2. OOOOOH!!! I totally feel your pain!! Here's one from the archives so you can see what I mean...

    http://midlifecruiser.blogspot.com/2010/07/uninvited-company.html

    After that, we had them INSIDE the RV!! Not so funny anymore. Don't even get me started on how it feels to hear the snap of a mousetrap in the middle of the night. Off to vomit now!

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  3. Hey - not related to this post - BUT if I had a marathon in 17 days and my foot hurt that much, I would REST (RICE) for the next 15 days, do a 2 mile "test" jog on day 16 (yes, the day before the marathon), and then go race knowing I had done EVERYTHING I could to heal my body. You don't need to do any real running, you're in the taper. Relax. If you do go the total rest route - make sure you eat like a pauper though. You're used to burning 5000 cal/week extra. Just sayin'. With love though, sayin' it with love....

    I am SO sad that you're going on that drive w/ your kiddos. We've done the neurologist thing already (step 1), and honestly, for us, it's wasn't that bad. They did some seemingly random tests that required overnight equipment in the house, but on the whole, not invasive... which is so KEY when dealing with Klingons. We're next going back to the PED to run some regular blood type tests to "rule stuff out", then to get a consult tomorrow so we know what other tests to run in Feb/March/April. Sending you good vibes. OH - do you have a smart phone? Download angry birds. My 4 year old LOVES playing it in waiting rooms.

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  4. AHHHH!!! I am so glad you found me because now I get to read your AMAZING blog....I am loving it. Oh I HATE BUGS, LIZZARDS, SNAKES just everything. I am so sorry about your ant problem:( Great job on the 21 miler.....Love the glamour shot. You and your family are GORGEOUS!

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