Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Any entomologists here?

Renzatic said:
If it makes you feel better, I've got a ladybug infestation in my house. See the little bastards all over the place upstairs.

And for a real big thrill, I sometimes get...things...that come up from the basement through the vents. I live in an old, old house built in the late 20's, and the basement here is almost like a cave you wander down into for horrible adventures and stuff. Anytime someone asks what's down there, I say it looks like the set to particularly gory snuff film, and nothing good could ever come from an expedition into it. The place just has a vibe of wrongness and terror to it.

Every rare once in awhile, something will escape from there and get into the main part of the house.

...and one time it was a cockroach. And not one of your wimpy little computer cockroaches, either. This thing was gigantic and fat. I remember walking around the corner and seeing it there on the wall next to the inside door that leads down into the basement. It looked at me, and I looked at it. It might've been my imagination, but I think I even heard it chik-chik-chik-chik-chiking at me, almost like it was daring me to have a go at it.

Chik-chik-chik-COME AT ME BRO-chik-chik-chik.

I felt I didn't have any other choice. I took my shoe off, and rushed it, putting every ounce of strength I had behind the smack I was about to deliver. And the thing...there's no other way to put it...it exploded. Juicy parts of ex-bug flew EVERYWHERE. It was like that scene at the end of Ghostbusters, but somehow more horrible because what I was coated with wasn't marshmallow. It was hell bug innards. Took me days to clean up.

So you think you have it bad? That ain't nothing. Some people have it worse.
Click to expand...

I usually just run away when i see anything bigger than an ant. I don't know what I would have done if I were in that position.
 
impulse462 said:
I usually just run away when i see anything bigger than an ant. I don't know what I would have done if I were in that position.
Click to expand...

Eh. Bugs usually don't bother me all that much (save for that spider I talked about in another thread, but it was pure evil). The way I see it, I'd rather kill it, then deal with the clean up and post-traumatic stress afterwards rather than having it running loose somewhere in the house.
 
Update for anybody who cares. Council came in today after setting traps over the weekend. 16 cockroaches found in total. Yep, we're infested. I've been counting and all the live ones we found in the computer, plus straight afterwards, and including the ones in traps, comes to just over 40. I'd be willing to bet that there are a few more.

So yeah, that was one infested computer. :(
 
ejb190 said:
Cockroaches are pretty easy to deal with. I can think of a good number of critters that would be worse then cockroaches - termites being just one of them!
Click to expand...

I disagree. While terminates can be more devastating to a structure, they're fairly easy to kill and keep out. Annual treatments around the perimeter of a house will keep them out.

As for cockroaches, they're pretty insidious to kill. I believe you need multiple treatments by an exterminator once they've established a colony.
 
maflynn said:
I disagree. While terminates can be more devastating to a structure, they're fairly easy to kill and keep out. Annual treatments around the perimeter of a house will keep them out.

As for cockroaches, they're pretty insidious to kill. I believe you need multiple treatments by an exterminator once they've established a colony.
Click to expand...

Apparently you need to nuke them to be really sure… and with something bigger than a ~15 kilo-ton too.

Link
 
maflynn said:
I disagree. While terminates can be more devastating to a structure, they're fairly easy to kill and keep out. Annual treatments around the perimeter of a house will keep them out.
Click to expand...

This is true for ground termites, but not true for drywood termites, who don't care at all about perimeter defenses when they're swarming.

I have an anti-ground termite defense (stuff the exterminator pumped into the ground all around the house) but I'm also having to have my house tented this weekend, because they are drywood colonies scattered throughout the house, mostly in the ceilings and rafters. It was last tented in 2009, and before that, in 2004. The little buggers keep getting in, but the ground termites don't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back