Cohabitating with Insects

[dave_littler]

For as long as I've lived in my current place, there have been silverfish here. This has never been a large concern to me; they're unobtrusive, they live off of garbage, they breed at around the same rate at which I can smoosh them anyways, so it's never been able to get out of control. Besides which, my neighbors report that they have these little

Comments

[dave_littler]

I hear you. I do. it's just tough to say goodbye to that $180 as long as there remains that faint little voice in the back of my head shouting "C'mon, champ! Don't give up! We can lick these beast for free, honest we can!"

Love the new userpic, by the way. Very slick.

[morgian_le_faye]

I managed to go my entire life thinking that bedbugs were just part of a funny saying until now! Actually, that's not entirely true... there is always a reason for every saying. Still, I imagined bed bugs as more of fleas, which I guess they pretty much are. Good luck with your battle. I'd recommend the aid of the second visit from the exterminator as much as the idea of $180 makes me hurt.

Might I also add that you have a very nice writing style.

[dave_littler]

Yeah, to me "don't let the bedbugs bite" comes across as being around as cute and funny as "don't get stabbed to death by a wine-soaked wino down by the docks"; it's good, solid life advice, is all. Sadly, as with the lunatic whims of knife-wielding bums, it is difficult advice to act upon effectively; if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

And if you like my writing style, I reccommend you click on that "writing" tag on this entry. It may seem somewhat meaningless given that virtually every post I've ever drafted has to one extent or another involved writing, but I think a certain logic emerges when you see what else I've thus tagged.

[morgian_le_faye]

thanks for the suggestion. Your entries have proved to be a very effective way to procrastinate on homework! I actually got really wrapped up in one that was also tagged atheism, so I clicked on that tag. That led me to the entry where you had links to sites that show that Jesus didn't exist... two hours later, I was no closer to finishing my music history homework, but much more informed on the character of Jesus! It was pretty awesome... minus the whole music history homework part...

[dave_littler]

Yeah, my journal is becoming ever more like Wikipedia, as I tag more and more stuff. You can just spend five hours fascinatedly moving from link to link and never run out of stuff to read. I really ought to spend another six hours some day adding even more detailed and comprehensive tags, just to complete the spider's web which my journal has become.

[hentaikid]

I had a similar relationship with mosquitoes (Including the satisfaction of seeing MY blood on the wall when I smoosh the guilty parties). Last month however I was given a present of a portable mosquito net to hang over my bed every night. Several times I have woken up to the satisfaction of seeing one or more of my enemies staring at me in frustration from the other side of the net (Though occasionally they still managed to get me through the net if my body was lying right against it, persistent buggers that they are)

Of course no such simple prophylactic measure will work in your case, so you have my sympathy.

[dave_littler]

Well, you're less correct than you might imagine.

Given the recent and dramatic upswing of bedbug infestations worldwide (thanks primarily to certain insecticides which had previously kept them at bay being outlawed due to their capactity to kill humans as well as bedbugs), there are products now being sold rather briskly which cater to specifically this need. I've acquired some vynil matress protectors; they're basically huge plastic condoms with zippers on the ends which you fit over your mattress and box spring. It seals existing bedbugs inside so they can just starve to death in their lair, and limits the habitat and hiding places of other bedbugs. It's not perfect, but it does help. As long as I frequently wash my sheets and such at high temperatures to get rid of hidden eggs and whatnot, thing get better.

These mattress condoms constitute around $100 of what I've spent on this business so far.

[wronske]

bedbugs . . . i could write a book on them. actually, over the course of my experiences with them and the resultant journal entries, i probably kind of have. if you need advice on dealing with them, let me know.

[dave_littler]

I may at that.

This, incidentally, is why I didn't get back to you on that bodypainting set a month or so back; I didn't want to risk exposing you and/or your clothes to this menace before I got a handle on the situation, you know?

[damiennightbane]

They mostly come out at night. Mostly.

[damiennightbane]

Have you tried using fire? :D

[dave_littler]

A tempting thought, desu.

However, the fact that they tend to be immediately next to my bed in all of its flammable glory tends to act as something of a deterrent in this regard, desu.

[damiennightbane]

Well if the VC is hiding in the jungle, you generally burn the jungle down.