deBugged

For years, I’ve soaked in all of this pest control wisdom about how to keep pests out of your home.

I’ve kept the bushes trimmed outside, made sure all the gaps were sealed and kept a clean kitchen (as clean as you can keep with two teenagers at least.)

You can only imagine my horror when the pest control technician told me the news that I have a mouse (or mice!) in my house.  Now, I’m a bit biased because I work for Ehrlich, (the best pest control company ever).  How could my house have a mouse??!!  Did this mouse know he would be up against Scott?  This was one gutsy mouse!

Well, this is also one very smart mouse.   Seems he/they like the wall void behind my kitchen cabinets and have not yet left this safe refuge, somehow avoiding the numerous mouse traps that have been set.  My little furry friend will go quiet for a while, and when I finally think he has vacated the premises, we will hear his scratching in the walls.  Alternatively, he sometimes leaves me a “present” on my kitchen counter.

This mouse (or mice) will have his day — and soon — but it is certainly humbling to be reminded just how smart pests can be.

If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it so the saying goes, as we continue with our next installment of our “5 things Rentokil would have ruined” blog post series.

5 movies

5 books (to follow soon)

Did you have this experience over the festive break? That time of year to buy toys for the children you love most. There’s nothing like seeing the joy that shines out of their eyes. Except the look of horror that comes across parents’ faces when they see that loud, spinning, flashing toy doesn’t have an OFF button. And believe me, as a mother I pulled that face a couple of times too!

There are some toys, however, that are just too ugly, creepy or bug-like. These are the toys that Rentokil would have ruined… What did we miss out from this list??

Furby is the electronic toy that ‘learns’ to speak and ‘develops’ a personality as you interact with it. You can’t turn it off, and underneath all that fur lurks what basically is Terminator’s pet.

These creepy dust collectors first became a fad in the 1960’s, the again in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. And if you think Noughtie’s children are too hip to be sucked in, just check out this updated version (you need to have the latest version of Flash to view the site).

Yeah, yeah, it’s an obvious addition, and it is pretty cool, but c’mon… It’s a giant spider. There’s no way it wasn’t going on the list.

If it took us

a) half an hour to set up our equipment – or possibly longer for an actual/full size version (see right) – followed by
b) a roll of the dice to try to catch a pest,
we’d probably be out of a job.

Giant rubbery, squishy bugs are freaky enough on their own. But giant rubbery, squishy bugs that glow in the dark? Eww.