Saturday, April 03, 2010

On plagues and other nuisances

There's not a photo to go with this, but I wanted to share our recent experience with an "infestation."

We get these periodically. It always starts out the same: we notice a bug here and there. Sometimes it's a flying bug. Sometimes it's a little bug you think is dead until you touch it and it moves. And they are very tiny - maybe the size of a pencil tip.

This time it started on the kitchen windowsills, so I assumed it was something coming in from outside. Then we saw them on the counters. On the stove. In the bathroom. Not tons of them - never more than 3 or 4 at time. But you got rid of them - and some more came back.

The last time this happened was after Harry and Dawn left from staying here when they remodeled their house. It was a swarming of tiny moth-like creatures. We found that they were multiplying in some doggy treats Harry had bought for the dogs. They left some of them here for when the dogs were here. And when I opened up the package they were in, there was a whole community of them - it was disgusting and fascinating at the same time.

So Thursday night I was thinking that I needed to start looking in containers - and sure enough, they were in some pancake mix in the cupboard over the stove. And they were in a box of graham cracker crumbs. Both of these containers were opened, so I wasn't surprised. But then I found an unopened box of instant mashed potatoes in the room formerly known as the laundry room - and it wasn't opened. They had drilled through the cardboard!! And there was a whole universe of those little critters in there!!

Needless to say we did a thorough search and had to throw out some large quantities of food. They had not gotten into any flour though - but just to be safe, I've put the flour in the fridge.

I even found one inside the cap for the bottle of mouthwash in the bathroom!

I can certainly see why the plagues were so odious to the Egyptians - and why we think of them as punishments!!

I think there's a moral here - or an object lesson - but for now I'm keeping an eagle eye out for any stragglers!

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