The vermin poll.

[rivka]

[Poll #1243857]

What prompted this poll: we saw a mouse in our kitchen this weekend. Mice in our last house got a bit out of control, so we're being alert and taking immediate measures to try to get rid of this one. But although I know that mice can carry disease, I don't really freak out about them. They seem like a normal fact of household life to me. They're a pain, but they don't revolt me.

Then I remembered a post I saw once on mothering.com, which at the time I labeled one of the most unintentionally revealing posts I'd ever seen. It was someone posing a hypothetical situation in which Child Protective Services might make unfair negative judgments about a family: By the time the caseworker shows up Mom decides to be friendly because, of course, she has nothing to hide -- so she invites the worker in for a cup of tea. She pours the tea and they sit chatting ... a moment later the worker picks up her cup to see a roach floating in it.

Mom says, "I'm so sorry -- we've just treated for roaches, but you know how hard it is to get completely rid of them ..." The worker doesn't understand, she's always lived in newer homes: from her perspective, a roach is a sign of a filthy house ...

My first reaction to that post: My house is 168 years old, so I hardly think I'm biased. Serving someone tea in a cup that has a roach in it? Is, in fact, a sign of a filthy house. And if you think that's normal or understandable, there's something wrong with your housekeeping standards. My second reaction, though: Huh, probably there are people out there who would feel the same way about mouse droppings in the back of a kitchen cupboard, which to me is a sign of whoops-but-no-big-deal.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Slugs in the house? ZOMG. Really slugs? How big were they? Slugs in the U.S. can be three inches long. I am just trying to imagine... whoa. I think they'd have to lock me up somewhere padded.

Alex would be delighted to have woodlice, which we call pillbugs, as a household pest. She is extremely fond of the ones in our garden, and has declared herself to be their veterinarian.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Yes, really. And three inches long. I didn't often see them because they came in after dark, but the evidence was plain, and sometimes you'd catch them.

They came in under the doors.

Nothing worked. New doors didn't work, pellets didn't work, salt worked for about five minutes until it got damp. It was just horrible.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I once stepped, barefoot, on a garter snake on the kitchen floor and killed it.

Nothing else in my life will ever compare.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Okay, you win. That really is the most horrifying thing imaginable, saving perhaps the roach in the teacup for the Child Protection worker.

My father tells a story about the time his father brought home snails as a gourmet treat. They were in a little white cardboard box, which proved to be imperfectly sealed... as my grandmother discovered the next morning, when she opened the refrigerator and there were slime tracks across everything.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

ZOMG HELP. I never thought there would be a pest I found more horrible than tree roaches.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

My husband, then boyfriend, once went downstairs barefoot in the middle of the night... He squished a slug with his foot and spent AGES trying to get the slime off. The complaints!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Back when the doctor let me do water exercise, I put my watershoes out on the porch to dry overnight and then put them in my bag in the morning and put them on when I was changing in the disabled room. One day, I stuck my foot in and felt squishy slug. I looked and both shoes had squishy slugs. I got them out and washed the shoes in the sink, and when I got home, I ordered another pair of shoes. Then I could leave a pair to dry in the guest bathroom.

slugs, cockroaches, mice and rats

[(Anonymous)]

n Sydney we have all the above, and I am feeling rather too laidback about all of them, given the reactions in your poll and comments, Rivka. Slugs walk all over my house, and nothing can be done -- even pest controllers throw their hands up. They are harmless, though, and the kids are now quite calm about picking them up, throwing them outside for the chooks and washing their hands.

Sydney is famous for its cockroaches and there's no off-season, because winter is mild. It's really only a problem when you get an infestation of German ones -- I can coexist with the big native ones as long as they respect the time share. Mice are no big deal, as long as one is prepared to empty the traps. Rats, however, I get the pest controller in straight away.

The received wisdom here is that cockroaches are not evidence of a dirty house -- they can live on paper and skin flakes for years, so the cleanest house can support them. Just check the cups before you use them.

I don't understand the impulse to go for poison at the slightest provocation, when cleaning the counters, keeping food in airtight containers and washing the dishes often will do .. surely the poison has to be worse?

Oh, and I'm so glad that NBHHY, Rivka ;-)
Emma