Today, Elise and I hauled a few more things to the new house and bummed around in the yard. Since the recent hot spell seems to be over, it was downright pleasant both inside and out. That $3 wading pool was a great investment.
Elise's bedroom is really starting to come together. We got her a canopy just like her friend Rista's, and she is enamored of it. I think she could spend the rest of her natural life playing under it, and we haven't even got the bed in there yet. Yay! It's going to be the world's best kid room. Or close to it, anyway.
In spite of the slightly odd shape of the master bedroom, we've got the furniture figured out and it's going to be awesome.
Of course, I also discovered that we have a pantry moth infestation. I'm at a loss as to how to clean all of the various crevices in the pantry (and I think also in the oversized cupboard in the 1st floor bathroom), so I'm mostly just littering the joint with sticky traps equipped with girly-moth pheremones. Hopefully, I'll nail a reasonable portion of the adults before we start moving in with food and the problem will go away on its own. Anybody out there have advice?
The neighbor's house can only be described as decrepit, and she seems to purposely be allowing pigeons to roost. I don't understand it. I do, however, note that the damn things are on my roof as well, and seem pretty content about it too. I'm dreaming of a hawk windsock or perhaps an owl or some other form of pigeon scaring device that won't also scare away the itty bitty fluffy gray birds that live in the orange tree. Again, I could use some advice.
There are ants all around the foundation and hornets nesting above the back door, but I know exactly what to do for them. Mwahahahahahaha.
Oh, and because we now have vast counter space at our disposal, I finally get to set up the item I've been coveting ever since my friend Raeghan told me about hers. Kitchen fish! The little aquarium I got to serve as a night light for Elise when she was a baby (it's too bright for that) now sits in the corner of our new counter, just below a little window. It's going to be awesome.
Only 9 more days to go! The house isn't nearly messy enough, and I'm going to be spending the rest of this week packing like a fiend.
Tomorrow was going to be a big push, but I was able to get Elise into the dentist mid-morning so at least the first half of the day will be a bit of a wash. On the plus side, we can see the new tooth that's growing in, and the wiggly tooth is now so loose that I get the heebie-jeebies just looking at it. And Elise is talking a little differently because of it, which I am just loving. She has a little wooden box that will be just perfect as a tooth-fairy mailbox, and she's anxiously awaiting the chance to put it to use. I'm thinking of how to make a miniature, sparkly note from the tooth fairy to put in there. Especially now that I packed all of the crapft supplies...
Okay, that's really it. I need to sleep! Will post more "exciting" moving details as they become available.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Moving Update
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3 comments:
So insect infestation. Ants are easy - usually. Get some of the little bottle baits. They have boron which is pretty benign except for ants. You could make your own by buying boron and mixing it with powdered sugar. Wasps! Get up before dawn some chilly morning. Go out with a big garbage bag and scrape the nest off the eaves and into the bag and tie it up. the wasps will be too sleepy & cold to fly around and sting you. The moths concern me. I'd talk to my landlady about hiring an exterminator. I don't think they will go away.
The plastic owl should do most of the trick for the pigeons.
Listen to the bug expert there.
To keep the ants out of the house you can try spreading a little chili pepper at the point of entry.
We get moths every so often when they come in with pet food or something. I don't know about ones that have been there for awhile, but I hate exterminators. They get a little over excited about killing everything in sight. (Read The Christmas Rat by Avi, a creepy kids book (ages 10 and up, please) that is about an exeterminator who "didn't get enough killing while in Nam". It makes me a little jumpy just to think about it.) You guys don't get a good frost to do in some of them. If you have the same kind of dumb moths that we get, time seems to help a lot.
Good luck with the bugs.
The world's best kid (meaning the best kid currently a kid which can be said without hurting the feelings of my kids or my brother's kids) deserves the world's best kid's bedroom.
Thank you, thank you for all of the good advice!
The ants seem to be limited to the outside for now, but I am under no illusions that they will stay there once Beaker starts throwing food on the floor. No matter how often I sweep. I've got some nasty spray stuff that I've injected into crevices, but will get the boron stuff going for long-term. That sounds much, much better than spray.
The landlady's handyman is supposed to walk me through the place soon, and I'm going to get ~him~ to take care of the wasps. Mwahahahaha! And climb out on the roof with an owl or two.
From what I can find online, my only hope of getting rid of the pantry moths is to trap the grownups. Our pantry has too many crevices for me to be able to clean 'em all out effectively. I could use some diatomacious earth in some of the crevices as well. Bottom line, pesticides are contraindicated around food, so I suspect I'll just have to be vigilant. Grr.
The Christmas Rat sounds too creepy for me. ~shiver~
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