pests
So, we managed to get everything out of the apartment by Tuesday. We really would have been faster if it weren't for RJH getting ill, and a few odd-shaped items like the broom and vaccuum which wouldn't fit in the car without another trip. We had several extra garbage bags out fron too. Mr. Useless, not satisfied with the getting out early (we rented the place until the 15th and his desire to get tradepeople in was not really our problem), sent several emails trying to get us to take the garbage away! The City will do that, and we, frankly don't even know where one would find a City dump. Anyhow, RJH suggested I let him take care of Mr. Useless. I think he was right. I might have sent a long reply explaining how we couldn't do anything about it.*
RJH just explained his rather gruesome discovery to Mr. Useless. In the basement, beyond the laundry room is a large area we are all allowed to use for storage. When packing up our stored items, RJH found a dead rat (DEAD. RAT. Distinctly not a mouse.) in a rather expensive camera bag. (He said he first noticed a bad smell, and looked inside, and saw something furry and thought mold, and then saw a tail and realized it was fur as in fur. The bag is now in the extra trash outside, of course). He suggested Mr. Useless leave the extra trash in the shed until garbage day. The DEAD RAT seemed to do the trick - no more whinging from Mr. Useless.
When I ran into that horrible nasty woman from the 2nd floor, with her wretched yappy and bitey dogs, I didn't mention the trash, but I just let her know about the dead rat. I said she should be careful with the dogs. I didn't know if the exterminator (who we had all believed was fighting mice) had used poison, but that it could be dangerous for the dogs to get into (poison, or poisoned rats, that is).
I realized after that this was sort of perfect. She had been one of the worst** neighbours I had ever had, and though RJH and I joked about 'A Fish Called Wanda'-style end for the incessantly yapping aggressive little dogs, we would never retaliate against her and her partner for their juvenile and unpleasant behaviour. However, I really did warn her about the dead rat for the sake of the safety of the wretched dogs, but in hindsight, I can't say that I regret that she now gets to worry about rats (dead or alive).
When we arrived in the house, one of our first planned projects was to tackle the laundry room. It's a small 8' by 10' extention on the house over the cold room in the basement. We had noticed on the home visit between purchase and closing that the ceiling was leaking. We knew the shingles needed to be re-done, but a leak is another thing. However, we didn't get anywhere though our realtor spoke with the seller's agent and our lawyer suggested it wasn't worth pursuing any other way. Luckily, RJH is handy and has even done some roofing. The room is terribly ugly anyway. So, he had planned to redo the small roof and while he was at it, take down the wood paneling and put up dry-wall. He went out there and noticed a couple of ants so he got some ant spray. I wanted to get a before photo... but before I could, he took a hammer to the ceiling at the wet spot, and he swears it was "like something from a Stephen King movie". Ants started pouring from the hole like a tap. He comes out, shuts the door, and calls for rubber gloves and a bucket of hot, soapy water, without telling me what was going on. Before I knew it, we had taken down the ceiling and a lot of the wall paneling, the damp and moldy insulation and sprayed and destroyed a colony of ants. By "we" I mean mostly him. I got the easier job of packing up the debris as he flung it from the door.
I have been doing some research on ants. I am pretty sure they were 'moisture ants' and thus we have treated them appropriately, by removing the wet wood (and getting rid of the colony with ant-insecticide). Worst case scenario, they were one of the many species of carpenter ant, in which case, let's just say, I'm certain we destroyed the main colony, since the queen is always with the larvae. So, I think, actually, everything is fine, and we took care of what would have been a much larger issue if left untended. You don't even want to know how many ants we are talking about. I know I don't want to know.
We've been to Home Depot and have supplies for repairing the laundry room roof, ASAP.
*I tried to place one bag in an empty trash container (the ones blythechild calls the megatrash-a-tron) but the snotty brat from the 2nd floor immediately came down to take it out of the bin.
**huge raving late night parties which get louder if you make any sort of complaint (and even included drunken threats from partiers), rotten aggressive yappy dogs who yap for hours non-stop, playing silly buggers with the various garbage containers, smoking on the fire escape (both blocking our only entrance/exit and filling my studio with second-hand smoke), etc.