The other day we had a pest control company come out and spray. We have been having a SERIOUS cricket problem downstairs. They’re everywhere!!! The other day one was INSIDE the couch…how does that even happen? So, the guy comes out and sprays. When he is finished, I was talking to him on our front porch and pointed out what looked like mouse dropping to me on our porch. I asked him about them. He said, No, that it was bat droppings….our house is stucco and they like to hang off the stucco. Ewwww gross. He mentioned that he saturated the walls of our porch with his spray….he said, it wasn’t rated for bats, but that they have found it to be a deterrent…..awesome…two services for the price of one.
I swear, that dude sprayed SUGAR WATER on my house…..not only have the bugs seemed to multiply in number and variety since he sprays, we have more bats (and therefore more bat poop) than before! Last night, a bug the size of a beer bottle dive bombed me the back porch. (thank goodness I had a handy dandy beer bottle in my hand for comparative measurements) This thing was a huge flying roach that crunched at supersonic level when I made Rell squish it with his shoe while I was running around the porch screaming like a little girl…a moving target is much harder to hit, right? So what if I looked like an idiot in front of the neighbors on their back porches….I wasn’t going to let that thing touch me. Two more in addition to several junebugs hung around that night….all subject to death by Reef when Rell could get to them. We’ve never had bugs like this before….Im telling you, sugar water! All this on top of the THREE tarantulas we have seen in our yard…two out back and one in the garage since this dude sprayed.
And then there’s the bats. I had seen the poop…guano if you will (why do bats get a special name for their poop) but had not actually seen a bat until the other day…and all of the sudden, like 30 of them…not exaggerating…we’re hanging from the stucco high on our front porch. OH MY GOD! Bats! Apparently, like the tarantulas, they’re good for bugs…..I guess not so much the giant flying crunchy roaches or the junebugs…but other bugs, sure. Regardless, I am not a fan of having bats hanging around my front door. Despite however many Jehovah’s Witnesses they might deter from ringing my doorbell, Im just not having it. They were there day and night. I researched website…most of them saying that any type of bat deterrent was usually unsuccessful….awesome. They did suggest turning on the outside lights. So we tried that one night…..it seemed to work ok, and the next morning, we turned the lights off. No need for exterior lights In the daytime, right? WRONG….the bat herd returned while it was still light outside and took up their post of hanging from my porch, peeing down my wall and pooping on my front step. So that night we turned the light on, and left it on. The bats have gone away…and have yet to return. Electricity bill be damned….those lights are on until the bats migrate back down to Phoenix!
Oh, and those of you that think maybe the presence of a dog would scare the bats away….because we do bring Maggie Mae out into the front yard at least once a day to hang out while we water or whatever…..the darn dog has no idea that the bats were even there. This is the same dog that just looks at the birds as they pluck her dog food from her bowl and bathe in her drinking water…..and doesn’t do anything about it!
We’re thinking of getting a new fridge. There isn’t anything terribly wrong with ours, except that we hate it. And ice doesn’t dispense from the door like it is supposed to….which totally bummed us out when we moved In and found that out….since that was one of the big ticket features we were excited about in our new kitchen….if you had seen our old house and our old freezer and our old ice trays which we hand filled in the freezer, you would understand. Anyways, we’re contemplating getting a new one. However, the other day while I was on Facebook, I saw pictures from a friends honeymoon all over Europe…and I thought to myself, “Hey I would LOVE to go to Italy” so I presented the idea to Rell…what if, instead of getting a new fridge, we put that money towards a vacation in Italy. Despite throwing all of my best high school debate tricks into play, I lost the argument…….I did however score a weekend at a resort in Scottsdale….I may have just learned a new trick! Ask for big and unreasonable, come out with small, fun and relaxing.
