Monday, September 1, 2008

ewie ew.

Animal lover I may be, but a fan of bugs I am not. I don't mind them when they're, you know, outside in their natural habitat. Yes, yes, bugs are animals - I don't wish them harm or seek to kill them when they're in my home, I am just very squeamish with the creepy crawlies. They evoke connotations of dirtiness and incessant buzzing. I am most terrified of spiders, but I can't even stand slugs. Slugs. You know, those things that haven't moved more than an inch between the time you first saw them, got up and ate something, watched a movie, wrote, directed, and starred in a movie, and came back to see if they're still there. Yeah, I'm afraid of those too.

And if I see a bee? You would think I'd been out and out swarmed by them by the way I scream and dance away. This is probably one of my more justified fears (irrational perhaps, but justified) because everything gave me hives as a kid. I haven't had an outbreak in years, but I was a very allergic child. I convinced myself so early on that I would be allergic to bees if I were ever stung that if I were to be now, I'd probably have an allergic reaction out of sheer paranoia.

So why the manifesto on why bugs freak me out? Because my house is absolutely infested. With gnats. Mother-effing fruit flies. I looked it up and apparently gnats are attracted to sink drains, trash bins and compost bins, and fresh fruit. And because I'm all green and what not with my let's-not-waste! attitude to compliment the what I thought was a sufficiently covered compost bin in the pantry, and because I like the enzymes in my bananas and tomatoes to remain active, and because I have plumbing like most people... I had all those things. And now the kitchen is really fucking infested. The situation reiterates itself in the morning when I wander in and the coffee pot that was left out (not by me, mind you, because I take my coffee single-serve) is teeming with them. Fan-freaking-tastic.

I'm afraid to walk into my kitchen. It has established a blockade between me and my favorite pastime - eating. I'm so frustrated.

We have a couple of those sticky strips that attract the gnats and have tried to control their other sources of attraction. It seems to helping, a little. Right now I'm just trying to control the problem before I have to resort to sprays or poisons, which I really, really don't want to do.

edit: The number of them have actually subsided; sealing off food more and the strips seem to have helped.

2 comments:

Vegan_Noodle said...

Yikes! Fruit flies can be annoying... that happened to me once with some old banana that I for some reason refused to throw out. I've also heard that if you fill a glass with a little apple cider vinegar and put a paper funnel on top (narrow end inside glass) and leave it out overnight that will help (flies get in but not out).
At least you don't have cockroaches... those things really scare me.

Veronica said...

Thanks for the tip! I'll try it with the remaining flock that just. Won't. Go.

And, yes, I'm grateful they're just a nuisance and not a threat because I'd be really concerned and repulsed if we had a cockroach infestation!