Here's what I've been up to:
PCV Pest Control
Recently, I've noticed an offensive amount of termites in the kitchen of the workstation at night time. Last night, Veronica (my new postmate) and I decided to investigate. What did we find you ask? That termites had made a home behind an outlet, in the wall, in the kitchen.
Well that
couldn't stand. Bug spray in hand, we attacked the outlet...doused it really, in aerosol bug spray. Pretty sure that all I have to do is point at bugs and the residue bug spray on my index finger would kill anything in it's path.
What happened next is definitely somebody's worst nightmare. Termites began (quite literally) to pour out of the outlet. I realized that the bug spray must attack their nervous system because it looked like they were going crazy, convulsing and curling up into little termite-balls. A small part of me felt bad until I remembered that one time at post when a termite bit me. Yes, bit me.
Their death was very kamikaze-esque. They'd come out of outlet and dive into the sink, practically jump off of the outlet.
For those of you who know me, you won't be surprised that I decided to fumigate other parts of the kitchen now that I had the guts to face and kill insects. I was on a roll, why stop?
For some time, I had noticed that bugs were going in and out of drawers where we keep powered milk, sugar, flower (in containers of course) so Veronic and I decided to investigate. This part was actually gross because roaches are my weakness. We cleaned out a drawer and sprayed bug spray at nothing in particular--just to see what would happen. There were more bugs than we thought.
We decided to take the whole drawer outside, dump everything and stomp on whatever crawled away. Seemed like a good idea until the big roaches came out.
Can someone please tell me why a cockroach needs to be 2-3 inches long? I mean, that serves no biological purpose. Spiders eat insects, snakes eat insects and small animals, ants even eat insects; they all serve a purpose. What purpose does a 3 inch cockroach serve? Hm? The only plausible reason for the existence of a roach that size is for the sole purpose to be disgusting. I love nature, I really do, but like most other things I love in this world there are parts of it that seriously, seriously irritate me.
In any case, the guard heard us shrieking, yes I shrieked, and came over to help us kill the roaches.
We had ourselves a roach stomping fest.
No worries though. Just all part of the job. I'm going to be so brave when I get home. Those puney American cockroaches won't mean anything to me. Score!
To answer your questions (which I like by the way. More, more!!) : I am pretty much always that creative although I'm not sure it took creativity so much as the ability to use a ruler, pen and markers to color to create the monopoly board.
In regards to my weight, I'm a solid 70 kilos. That's where the scale goes everytime. I think this is roughly 154 lbs and I've seemed to level out here. Parasites, I assume they're gone. All the plumbing runs smoothly, wink wink.
And finally, yes I can use satellite internet here at the workstation. It was recently installed and it's amazing. All we need know is a hot water heater. Of course if we get that we go from Peace Corps to Posh Corps ;)
3 comments:
Oh God. Sounds very ugly, especially the roaches. Regarding the pests in your wall, if they really are termites I doubt they've been extinguished by your efforts. Which is concerning; they are very invasive and can cause major damage. I know you don't have an Orkin man to call, but is there anything that the Peace Corps can do to the work station on a larger scale?
Nice Work!
<3 Robert
A bit of trivia from good old Wikipedia:
"The US Department of Energy is researching ways to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of cleaner energy, and termites are considered a possible way to reach this goal through metagenomics.
Termites may produce up to two litres of hydrogen from digesting a single sheet of paper, making them one of the planet's most efficient bioreactors. Termites achieve this high degree of efficiency by exploiting the metabolic capabilities of about 200 different species of microbes that inhabit their hindguts."
Good stuff.
- RCW
OMG, just caught up with your adventures of a few months. You surely are learning and have had your share of pests. Termites can cause major damages, so stock up on the bug killer. Don't know about those roaches though. They don't fly do they? Good to see you are keeping a humorous spirit when you write. No one but you can put things down the way you do. :o)Keep it up! Good to hear you have satellite internet now. Love the creative colorful Monopoly game you made. Keep yourself happy and healthy, stompin and spraying. Maybe a part-time job in your future. Village bug exterminator. LOL
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