Wednesday, December 4, 2013

No Pictures For Which We Can All Be Grateful

The good news around here is that the constant rodent partying seems to have ended. No more rodent-bowling. No more rodent-dancing. No more rodent-hide-n-seek, flitting in and out of my peripheral vision. We aren't hearing squeaking in the walls or the pitter-patter of little feet in the ceiling above us. No more mice in the bath tub.

Yep. They drank the Kool Aid, or actually, ate the bait. The poison bait.

And you know what the bad news is. Right? Do I even need to say it?

They are starting, those little dead bodies, to smell. Not to smell, no, that's not putting it accurately. They are starting to stink as only death can stink and this is why we didn't put out poison long ago but it had reached a tipping point and we slid over into the side of KILL THEM. KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! and now we're going to reap the rewards.

It is supposed to get up to almost 80 degrees tomorrow and it is supposed to be warm all week and it is warmish now, misty and foggy and warming up nicely and speaking of tipping points- will there be a point where we have to abandon ship and leave the house and take our dogs with us until the process of decomposition has fully taken place? Where would we go? We can't just bag it and run for the island for weeks on end. I suppose we could rent a camper and put it in the backyard. I'm seriously trying to think of alternatives here because this is a real possibility. There are not enough scented candles in the world to cover the stench of the number of dead rodents I fear may be trapped in our walls, under our house.

Merry Christmas!

Well, there you go. Life in Lloyd isn't all light pouring over the oak trees. It's not all cute little chickens laying eggs in begonias. It's not all hanging out on the porch and drinking martinis. It's not all cutting up vegetables that we grew to put in soup. It's not all magnolias and camellias and Buddha-in-the-impatiens. It's not all a house full of light and grandchildren and dancing in the hallway to the Rolling Stones. It is not all easy or lovely or charming.
Not always.

Yin and Yang, baby. Yin and Yang.

You can quote me on that.

I'll keep you posted.





12 comments:

  1. Finally all caught up on the chickens, the boys, the dental stuff, the break and enter, the soup and the death stench and all I can say is that there is NEVER a dull moment in your life, is there?
    :)

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  2. We live in the wild, wild west and once smelled that very stench. I called the pest control folks, and they said that short of busting out walls (we think a little critter fell down a wall from the attic-ugh), it was best to leave it be and once it decomposed (ugh again) it wouldn't smell anymore. I bought a shit ton of scentsy and it was gone in a few weeks. Time to go to Dog Island.

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  3. Oh, boy. At least here they would dry out quickly. It's so much more humid there. Oh, man.

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  4. every fall something gets in one of our bathroom ceilings and dies cause it can't get out, so I know all about the SMELL. We can't figure out how it gets in or what it is. Only happens in the fall.
    Darlene in MN. where it is a snowy day

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  5. I wish I didn't know that smell, but I do. Something so small can smell so bad for longer than you'd think. A few weeks from now you will forget, and remember that poison has its drawbacks, especially inside the walls. So does forgetting to check the mousetraps, or forgetting where you put them. We've been battling house rodents for far too long, haven't we? My sympathies.

    Hoping you get more yang than yin.
    xo

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  6. heartinhand- Well, I guess it depends on what you'd consider "dull." It's all pretty exciting and dramatic to me.

    Ashley- Oh yes. And that was ONE critter. I have no idea how many we've got here. Four? Forty? They sure ate a lot of bait. I mean, A LOT!
    And yes, we could go to the island except for things like jobs and grandboy-tending. We may have to abandon our duties as well as our house if things get bad enough.

    Stephanie- Yep. You are exactly right. How ARE you girl? We miss you!

    Darlene- Hello! I have no idea why that would only happen in the fall either. Weird. Thanks for coming by.

    Mel- I don't feel real good about poison but things were just getting completely out of control here. Yes. We've been battling the rodents too long. As humans have always done, I suppose.



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  7. Glue boards baited with peanut butter do wonders. I don't use poison but truly believe in the glue boards. Have caught a snake, a flying squirrel, a mouse, some roaches--well, you get the picture.

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  8. I think that smell is what puts your dwelling place off the list of the next generation of rodents. In the lifetime of this house, we had one fell swoop of soccer-playing chipmunks, led to their demise 15 years ago by a peanut butter sticky glue trap, and have had not had hide nor hair since.

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  9. This reminds me of the rat that died and rotted in the floorboards of the room I lived in for a few months in a sorority house at UNC. The smell was outrageous, but the best thing that happened is that the ensuing maggots dropped through the ceiling of the girls that lived downstairs, all of whom I couldn't stand.

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  10. No, it is not all sweetness and light. Sometimes it is rodents rotting in the walls, ceilings and floors. Mwahaha!

    Here's wishing you zero, zip, zilch "ensuing maggots"! (What an image, Elizabeth! But it must have been sweet revenge.)

    Sweet dreams. x0 N2

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  11. I've had some minor experience with the rodent death stench in the past, and my experience was that it vanished fairly quickly. Of course, I guess it depends on how many of them there are, and how big they are. :/

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  12. Syd- Those glue boards freak me out. Well, it all freaks me out.

    CathyLane- Thanks for coming by and thanks for those words which give me a bit of a sliver of light of optimism for the future. I am serious.

    Elizabeth- I will never, ever stop laughing at the thought of this. Thank you.

    N2- I know that I now must have maggots galore. Hopefully they will stay where I can't see them.

    Steve Reed- And yes, those variables are ones I do not have control over. Sigh.

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