Today while I was at work, Jared sprayed the entire house inside and outside with the bug spray stuff we bought since we can't afford real pest control. :( In the past four days alone, there have been 9 centipedes and 4 spiders in our stairwell and kitchen. Today, I saw none. I hope to God that this spray works as it was only $5 for the entire bottle and it was enough for the entire house. I am so tired of seeing gross centipedes in my house and it's only been three days. It seems like it's working so far...
What I Learned: In spending $5.00 on bug spray, there seems to be a significant decrease in centipede activity in our house already.
Showing posts with label bugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bugs. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Pest Control
Today, I saw the first centipede (of probably MANY more to come) in the house. Last year, we had them all summer along with these blond spiders in our kitchen. I keep my house so ridiculously clean, but apparently that doesn't matter and they still are crawling around on my walls! For some reason, I just assumed that pest control didn't cover centipedes and spiders as I always thought of them as covering ants, roaches and bees (which is what people use them for in Georgia). I decided to call a few places just to see what was covered and to find out how much it cost. Turns out that all pest control places (the four I called at least) cover centipedes and spiders! On top of that, it was a lot cheaper than I thought to get them to come out year round to spray your house. The cheapest I found was $378 for the entire year. This company would come every quarter to spray but if you had a problem in between treatments, they would come out and treat again. I was so excited about this and just thought that of course we would get this because why would we live with centipedes in our house when we could get rid of them?
Apparently, I forgot that money doesn't grow on trees, and when you live on a tight budget with no disposable income, coming up with $378 is literally impossible. So alas, we are not getting pest control. However, I am bound and determined to find a way to get rid of these damned centipedes!
What I Learned: Pest control can get rid of centipedes...if you can afford it.
Apparently, I forgot that money doesn't grow on trees, and when you live on a tight budget with no disposable income, coming up with $378 is literally impossible. So alas, we are not getting pest control. However, I am bound and determined to find a way to get rid of these damned centipedes!
What I Learned: Pest control can get rid of centipedes...if you can afford it.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Learning
I find that some days I learn a lot of things and take mental note of them, only to realize when I sit down to write my blog that if I wrote down the things I learned, they would each be a sentence long. Sometimes you learn a fact but there really isn't even context to write about how or why you learned it. Today I feel like I learned about 12 things, but none of them are worth writing about and I am racking my brain to try to think of what to write.
For example, I learned that you can freeze black eyed peas. We bought a huge bag and wanted to make them all and then freeze them to save us from having to make a lot of small batches because you have to soak the beans for a few hours and then cook them for a few hours. I wanted to make sure you could freeze them, and sure enough, you can. That seems too boring and trivial to write an entire blog about (as I'm typing this I'm thinking about other posts I've written that I'm sure were trivial and boring as well...so maybe it doesn't really matter).
As another example, I learned that scientists found a way to breed mosquitoes who are born with a certain gene mutation that makes it necessary for them to have antibiotics to live. Obviously they will not get antibiotics and will therefore die. The implications are enormous: if you can decrease the mosquito population in areas where mosquitoes carry infectious diseases like malaria and dengue fever, you could save millions of peoples' lives.
I guess these maybe are just as mundane as other things I've learned on other days, but today just seemed like a day of random facts without much substance.
What I learned: A lot of things, including that you can freeze cooked black eyed-peas and that it might be possible to kill off lots of mosquitoes to save peoples' lives.
For example, I learned that you can freeze black eyed peas. We bought a huge bag and wanted to make them all and then freeze them to save us from having to make a lot of small batches because you have to soak the beans for a few hours and then cook them for a few hours. I wanted to make sure you could freeze them, and sure enough, you can. That seems too boring and trivial to write an entire blog about (as I'm typing this I'm thinking about other posts I've written that I'm sure were trivial and boring as well...so maybe it doesn't really matter).
As another example, I learned that scientists found a way to breed mosquitoes who are born with a certain gene mutation that makes it necessary for them to have antibiotics to live. Obviously they will not get antibiotics and will therefore die. The implications are enormous: if you can decrease the mosquito population in areas where mosquitoes carry infectious diseases like malaria and dengue fever, you could save millions of peoples' lives.
I guess these maybe are just as mundane as other things I've learned on other days, but today just seemed like a day of random facts without much substance.
What I learned: A lot of things, including that you can freeze cooked black eyed-peas and that it might be possible to kill off lots of mosquitoes to save peoples' lives.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Monarchs and Other Things
Today I started my new job as the administrative assistant at Fresh Frame Photography (I actually don't have a title or know what it would be, but based on what I will be doing, it's closest to that, so I'm going with it). I learned a LOT, not just at the job, but throughout the rest of the day. Here are a few snippets.
1. I learned how to scroll on a MAC.
2. I learned how to "right click" on a MAC
**Disclaimer: I am completely computer literate. I just am a PC, not a MAC, so I didn't know how to do a lot of basic things because I've used a MAC all of two times in my entire life.**
3. I learned how to take screen shots of damaged files in Light Box.
4. I learned how to do basic exposure editing in Light Box.
5. I learned that you can order monarch butterflies online and that you keep them refrigerated to keep them alive before releasing them. Ok, this one needs a little more explanation.
In looking through some wedding pictures to find damaged files, I saw that a couple had given everyone an envelope of sorts. Inside each envelope was a monarch butterfly. I was astonished-how did they get these butterflies to stay in the envelopes? How long were they in there? Sarah (my employer) informed me that you can order them online for mass release at special events. They come to you a day or so before your wedding (or whatever event you are using them for) and you keep them in the fridge or in the insulated box they come in. Because of the colder temperatures, they "sit" with their wings together and "hibernate" so they don't need food or water for a few days. Then the day you need them, you take them out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan to release them to give them ample time to warm up and unfold their wings, and presto! Everyone opens their envelope and the butterflies are released! How cool is that? Here's a website to prove it: http://www.mrbutterflies.com/instructions.htm
6. Jared and I went to see Immortals after learning that they changed the movie times since the last time we looked. We were supposed to see J. Edgar. We both realized that neither of us were in the mood to see blood and gore and violence...too late. The movie wasn't bad, but it was not the movie we wanted to see. Boo.
7. I learned how to play a new game at game night called Reverse Charades. It is exactly what it sounds like and it was very fun and I don't really like normal charades. Basically, everyone on your team but one person stands up and tries to get the one person to guess. There is a timer and your team just has to get through as many cards as you can. I think it's more fun because you don't feel like you're on the spot and having to act goofy in front of all these people as you are doing it with your whole team.
What I learned: See above (since they're all spelled out pretty clearly this time).
1. I learned how to scroll on a MAC.
2. I learned how to "right click" on a MAC
**Disclaimer: I am completely computer literate. I just am a PC, not a MAC, so I didn't know how to do a lot of basic things because I've used a MAC all of two times in my entire life.**
3. I learned how to take screen shots of damaged files in Light Box.
4. I learned how to do basic exposure editing in Light Box.
5. I learned that you can order monarch butterflies online and that you keep them refrigerated to keep them alive before releasing them. Ok, this one needs a little more explanation.
In looking through some wedding pictures to find damaged files, I saw that a couple had given everyone an envelope of sorts. Inside each envelope was a monarch butterfly. I was astonished-how did they get these butterflies to stay in the envelopes? How long were they in there? Sarah (my employer) informed me that you can order them online for mass release at special events. They come to you a day or so before your wedding (or whatever event you are using them for) and you keep them in the fridge or in the insulated box they come in. Because of the colder temperatures, they "sit" with their wings together and "hibernate" so they don't need food or water for a few days. Then the day you need them, you take them out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan to release them to give them ample time to warm up and unfold their wings, and presto! Everyone opens their envelope and the butterflies are released! How cool is that? Here's a website to prove it: http://www.mrbutterflies.com/instructions.htm
6. Jared and I went to see Immortals after learning that they changed the movie times since the last time we looked. We were supposed to see J. Edgar. We both realized that neither of us were in the mood to see blood and gore and violence...too late. The movie wasn't bad, but it was not the movie we wanted to see. Boo.
7. I learned how to play a new game at game night called Reverse Charades. It is exactly what it sounds like and it was very fun and I don't really like normal charades. Basically, everyone on your team but one person stands up and tries to get the one person to guess. There is a timer and your team just has to get through as many cards as you can. I think it's more fun because you don't feel like you're on the spot and having to act goofy in front of all these people as you are doing it with your whole team.
What I learned: See above (since they're all spelled out pretty clearly this time).
Monday, October 31, 2011
Ants
Today on Sesame Street (yes, I learned something new from Sesame Street), Elmo and Telly were reading a book with fascinating insect facts. One such fact they revealed was that ants don't sleep. I realized that I had never heard this fact before. So I did some research. According to several websites, ants do actually sleep but their sleep is so unlike ours that it can barely be called the same thing. It seems that most ants "sleep" together as a colony for 8 minutes every 12 hours. For all the work ants do, it's amazing that they can function on so little sleep, if sleep is what you even want to call it. Now if only humans felt rested after only 8 minutes of sleep!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1967,00.html
What I learned: Ants sleep for 8 minutes every 12 hours.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1967,00.html
What I learned: Ants sleep for 8 minutes every 12 hours.
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