By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
I told you last week I had just about overcome the moths that were taking over my house in the country. I was mistaken. Just like the zombies, they came back, mindless fluttering little robots, thicker and more persistent than ever. Insect bombs don’t even phase them.
Carl has gone to counting them as he swats them. His highest count was well over 100. I keep looking for their food supply. I found a shaker of gravy mix that looked like some had been there, but it couldn’t have bred that many. I really think they are eating that blown-on ceiling stuff. I know I should call an exterminator like Pest Control Pros. But this has got personal. I want to do them in myself, I’ll give it a try at least and then go to the Pros if I fail.
And now I know what to do. I’m just waiting for it to come in the mail from Amazon. It’s “The Pantry Pest Trap” that lures male moths in where they get stuck to its walls. It has a time released pheromone that smells like lady moths, that will last more than 3 months and covers a 1000 foot area.
This stuff works. I used it a long time ago. However, I read in the comments on Amazon that its only problem is the sticky stuff isn’t strong enough, and many males do get away. One commenter said the way to remedy that was to get a fly paper strip, take the pheromone patches out of the traps and attach them to the fly paper. Of course then you have to look at a fly paper strip hanging in your house. I wonder if there is a way to disguise a fly paper strip. I could put a little curtain around it. They sure do like to get in everywhere they aren’t supposed to—maybe if I hid it, they would like it even better.
We’ll keep swatting them, and they breed so fast they should be gone in no time.
I hope.
The other critters I talked about last week haven’t completely left me alone, either. I went to feed the birds and found a mouse in the trash can where I keep the bird seed. It was nearly empty, so I just loaded it up in the back of the car so I could drop him off in some woods on my way to town. On the way, I saw a turtle in the middle of the road. When I slowed down to think about it, remembering my brush with near-destruction at the hands of a turtle last week, the trash can tipped over, and I just barely caught it before the mouse jumped out. I would have been looking for a mouse in my car like I was looking for the turtle last week. Sure enough, when I stopped to let him out, I didn’t have to tip the can over any further than it was when I stopped for the turtle, and he just ran right up the side, jumped out, and ran into the woods, just a pretty as you please.
Last week I thought the mice were biting holes in the cereal so the moths could get to it. This week I thought for just a minute that turtles were ganging up on me to let more wild things run around in my car.
I’m not getting paranoid, am I?