The house is overrun with animals. Not nice ones. Despite forking out €243 to Mr. Rentokil, we seem to have an above average number of houseflies. So appealing in any property. This did, however, give my loving husband an opportunity to kill a fly in a most satisfactory manner. He was chasing a fly on the landing with our can of useless spray (this is the problem with everything being safe, it’s also useless) and the fly was lolling about in the air soaking up the aromas with no apparent ill effects. The fly was, however, scared of the folded Irish Times that Mr. Waffle was using to supplement the fly spray (“Help, help, the liberal Dublin media, the organ of record is coming to get me with its tales of traffic chaos in the capital”) and flew blindly into a spider’s web and was trapped. Mr. Waffle noted with satisfaction, the spider efficiently bundling up its prey – one fly down. Mr. Waffle had only recently been complaining that the huge number of spiders we have on the payroll had been failing to deliver in terms of fly catching figures and that, going forward, in the absence of improved catching capacity we might have to look at overall spider numbers with a view to effecting savings in the current economic conditions. The memo obviously leaked to the spiders and they are on their mettle.
Meanwhile, we are also fighting a rear-guard action on operation wasp. Despite laying down powder, spraying, putting out a glass of coke for them to drown in and blocking up access to their nest with a highly sophisticated barrier (a combination of an old baby’s bib and tinfoil, since you ask). They are still coming. They buzz around outside hopefully (“They used to live here, they’d never have moved without telling us…call the rest of the gang”) and, increasingly and distressingly, they also buzz around inside the house. Our reluctant conclusion is that there must be some other form of access to the nest from inside the house.
And last, but by no means least, my blog is beset by spammers. At least they can’t sting me, I suppose.
Poor thing. I’m a little bit crazy about keeping a clean home, so nothing gets to me more than pest issues–yuck! I hope things get better soon–does it get cold enough there to at least have them die off in the winter? That’s one great thing about living in the Rocky Mountains–nothing survives past October and we get a nice long break from the creepy crawlies.
I hear that Citronella in water in a spray is very effective for getting rid of house flies and for them not coming back (spray it on ceilings, walls, etc). Well, that’s according to a TV programme, anyway, which of course may not be the most reliable source of information…
I also hate dealing with those pesky WASPs. We’ve tried to drive them out of the neighborhood with Corpus Christi processions and loud organ music at early Sunday-morning masses, but that hasn’t worked very well either.
noticed the spammers when you were on hols
i do comapnionship housework – as in planting – havecobwebs at least a year old & lovely fat spiders plus their offspring – very few flies!
don’t have many visitors either 😉
Thank you for all the sympathy and the useful advice. I am rather taken with the citronella LG as it is probably both cheaper and less toxic than Mr. Rentokil’s offering.
Kara, despite being considerably warmer here than in the Rockies, things seem to have died off a bit so remain cautiously optimistic that the worst is over.
BroLo, neighbours might also object to organ music in my case.
J, need to fatten up my spiders, clearly.