Pantry Moths in the Cupboards, Part V
Thanks to Seanie's hard work, we're seeing fewer pantry moths. He emptied all the cupboards, and stripped every shelf of the old contact paper that was on it when he moved in. Every single surface was then cleaned twice - first with a horrid orange-scented chemical bath that killed and sterilized the wood. It also gave me a massive headache and made me feel so sick that I couldn't enter the kitchen; if it made me that miserable than I can only hope that it also killed off the pantry moths. The second thing he did was spray everything with Aunt Norma's Pantry Moth Spray, a concoction of essential oils that seemed to be the only remedy we could find. Ever since he finished, the pantry moths have been dropping. We saw five yesterday throughout the entire day (when last week five moths in an hour was common) and today I've seen three so far. Every time Seanie or I spot one, we go sprinting after it and smoosh the life out of it. Hopefully, we're killing them off before they lay eggs, and when we kill this batch we'll be done with them.
The moths have been so disruptive. We haven't had a kitchen for several weeks, so we've been eating out a lot. It's so expensive, but without any surfaces to prepare food or clean dishes to cook with, we haven't been able to do much else. Knowing that the bugs are here is utterly distracting, too. Every time a bit of dust or a flicker of movement crosses my line of vision, I have to whip around and watch until I'm certain it isn't one of the moths.
Having all our dishes and small appliances moved out of the kitchen and cluttering up every available space in the other rooms makes it so hard to relax at home. It feels claustrophobic and disorganized, which tears my concentration to rags. I'm having trouble concentrating on studying at home, which in turn affects my performance at school.
Before this, I never would have thought about how easily a bunch of bugs could derail everything. I'm beginning to see how hoarders can live in filth every day; if Seanie hadn't been so dedicated to eradicating the bugs, I could see myself just giving up and letting them have the kitchen.
Well, maybe not. I'd hire someone to fix it and just throw money at the problem until it went away. But that's a very unhealthy way to deal with an infestation, no?