Surviving the Visitors.

August 22, 2010
Crawling on my toothbrush
Ants inevitably and unavoidably seem to make themselves at home in our house. Though I have not had an infestation in my room, I have seen little wandering groups of teeny tiny ants crawling around, especially on my closet/shelving piece of furniture that holds pretty much everything I have. Last night when I went to brush my teeth, I had to do a double take to see a dozen mini ants swarming my toothbrush like it was a Valentino buffet. Gracias a Dios, I did notice them before I put the toothpaste on and stuck them in my mouth. Utterly appalled by the idea of using my once ant covered toothbrush, I skipped brushing my teeth last night. I think my dentist would understand. Today I bought a new toothbrush, but I have no idea how I am going to keep the ants off it! I can’t seal it up or it will mold. Ideas?
Another use for butter containers
Shortly after the toothbrush buffet, I was startled by a small movement by my feet. However, my nerves quickly calmed when I realized I just had a little dime-sized frog visitor. I wasn’t sure about picking it up with my hands, so I searched my room as fast as I could for something to capture it in. I happened to have three small former butter containers that were holding my hair things. I dumped my hair ties into my green organizer, grabbed a lid, and stealthfully moved towards my uninvited houseguest. I soon captured the little frog and triumphantly released it outside the door. We now have a Smart Balance butter container labeled “Frog Catcher” which is my designated job, because my roommates are scared of frogs.
Lizards are cute.
Today marked the dawn of a new much cleaner era in our house. After eating a light breakfast, Dawnelle, Darcia, and I began the lengthy task of cleaning our house. As I was getting to the bottom of our silverware drawer, I suddenly become aware of small little droppings all over the bottom of the silver ware holder. Very concerned and in somewhat of a shrieking voice, I asked the girls what on earth had left them there. Looks like lizards one of them informed me. Ew. That was just the beginning of my lizard poop discoveries. Lizards are cute…when they are outside.
The first and ONLY time I went in the shower without flip flops
From the kitchen I moved into the bathroom. I cleaned all the walls, the sink, and the toilet. It was time to clean the shower. I wasn’t really looking forward to scrubbing at the shower. Intuition must have been kicking in. When I got to the floor I stepped out to pick up the little plastic shower organizer to clean it. As soon as I lifted it I saw a little worm squirm around. I let out a small scream and loudly asked my roommates why a worm was in my shower. Together they explained that sometimes worms come up through the drains, and they have heard that the worms can attach themselves to you. That’s why it’s best to wear flip flops in the showers. Forget icky foot problems—I could get worms! All of these horrible mental images of Holocaust stories I’ve heard flashed through my mind. I know I may have been thinking a bit dramatically, but it was a very unwelcomed surprise. I waited around a few moments before it dawned on me that no one was coming to my rescue. I was going to have to smush the worm myself. I contemplated my options and grabbed my body wash container. My first whack copped the worm in half, but then both ends were squirming. So I hit it again, and then three ends were wiggling about! Very concerned about how I was going to kill it, I again consulted my roommates. We decided cockroach killer should do the trick. The worm pieces writhed about and finally died. I am never showering here without flip flops again.
Understanding the tape
I’ve noticed tape around the house in various places—sometimes around a window, sometimes around the floor. Now I know why. Our cleaning was almost complete. All three of us moved into the kitchen to finish up a couple places. By now I am a “seasoned” spider killer (so long as they aren’t too big) and used to spider webs and the like. But as I started cleaning behind our stove I jumped back in alarm. A whole party of bugs was running in a circle on the wall and more were below! Too scared to take immediate action, someone else had to inspect to see what kind of bugs they were. Turns out they were just ants. Ha. I have never been so happy to see ants before. I ended their party very suddenly with some cockroach killer and went on cleaning. We definitely tapped over where they were coming in at.