Amy Sumida's Blog - Posts Tagged "pests"
The Price of Paradise
All of you who live in Hawaii know that although we are blessed to live in such a wonderful place, the cost of paradise is high. Real estate is crazy, groceries alone are expensive enough to make you starve, and the price of gas has gone through the roof. Along with all of this, we have the pests of paradise. Without the harsh winter cold to kill off or at least hibernate the bugs, we have gigantic cockroaches, mosquitoes, and termites. It's the latter on the list that I've had a recent run in with.
I live in an old house and we've been battling those wood-munching menaces for years. Lately though I've been hearing them at night, crunch, crunch, crunch. I thought they were in the wall next to my bed but I haven't found any sections of macerated wood. Then, last night, I hear them again. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Ugh! I run and get the bottle of termite spray and sit with my ear pressed against the wall, trying to determine where exactly the damn things are.
My cat Dominic thought this was the best game ever and came over to help me by pressing his face into mine while I sat there listening for the tell-tale munch of the tiny monsters. Finally, I realized that the sound wasn't coming from the wall at all but instead from my bookshelf on the wall. I pressed my finger into the underside of the shelf and lo and behold, it gave way, an avalanche of termite droppings falling out.
Agh! I screamed again. I pulled all of my books and chatzkis off the shelf and redistributed them around my house so I could remove the entire contaminated piece and throw it out. It's better than having the wall infected but now, I ask you, where do I put my collection of Nightmare Before Christmas figures and my collection of Tokidoki Unicornos? Sigh, paradise lost.
I live in an old house and we've been battling those wood-munching menaces for years. Lately though I've been hearing them at night, crunch, crunch, crunch. I thought they were in the wall next to my bed but I haven't found any sections of macerated wood. Then, last night, I hear them again. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Ugh! I run and get the bottle of termite spray and sit with my ear pressed against the wall, trying to determine where exactly the damn things are.
My cat Dominic thought this was the best game ever and came over to help me by pressing his face into mine while I sat there listening for the tell-tale munch of the tiny monsters. Finally, I realized that the sound wasn't coming from the wall at all but instead from my bookshelf on the wall. I pressed my finger into the underside of the shelf and lo and behold, it gave way, an avalanche of termite droppings falling out.
Agh! I screamed again. I pulled all of my books and chatzkis off the shelf and redistributed them around my house so I could remove the entire contaminated piece and throw it out. It's better than having the wall infected but now, I ask you, where do I put my collection of Nightmare Before Christmas figures and my collection of Tokidoki Unicornos? Sigh, paradise lost.
