A Creek Runs Through It

Right outside my apartment area is a creek.  It runs throughout the complex.  It is delightful to listen to the running water, little bubbling waterfalls.  Birds fly to it, sitting on the rocks and drinking or bathing.  The sun is warm on the stones.  So, between the creek and the tall trees and the green grass, this small apartment complex is very pleasing.

Well, except for the water roaches...

Since I am gone from the apartment six weeks at a time, when I return I have found a bug or two in the sink or tub.  They climb up the pipes and get stuck in the smooth-surfaced as they can't climb up smooth surfaces.  I give a little shriek and pour hot water down the drain.  Instant death and then it flows down the drain.  Buh Bye~~~

These ugly creatures are generally not a problem.  I haven't seen any since the first day back.  That is until Saturday night.

I'm sitting at the little counter, facing into the little kitchen.  The kitchen light is on.  It is one of those older valance fixtures that uses fluorescent tubes.  It has a box around it and a piece of pokey plastic cover. And as I look up at the light, I see one of those ugly roaches scampering across, inside the plastic cover.  I get up and look at it closer and see it's two inches of tummy right above my head.  I am trying to figure out how to KILL IT! but am concerned that taking off the cover, it will fall on my head or the floor and scamper away.  So I think, "Two people can be better at this than one!" and I hurried upstairs to Anthony's apartment.  He lives above me.

Knock Knock.  "Anthony I need help."  I can see he is ready to help any way he can... "I have this bug..."  And he starts shaking his head no no no.  

"I don't do bugs!" No no no, his hands pushing against the air like he wants to get away from me and shut the door.  

"I just need someone to hold the plastic so I can get it without..." 

"You have a husband!  Why isn't HE here to take care of the bugs for you?!?!"  He was still shaking his head no no no, so I stop my plea and say it's okay.  Don't worry; I can take care of it.  "Just spray the hell out of that bug; that's what I do!"

"Do you have any bug spray?"

"No, sorry."  He's much calmer now.  Okay, I say...and head back downstairs.

When I return to the kitchen, I check the lightbox and THE ROACH ISN'T THERE!  Oh good gawd...  I poke the plastic cover trying to get it to come back into view.  I figure it's hiding in the valance somewhere.  I realize nothing can get out of the box, so I go back to my laptop, keeping an eye on the light.  

Suddenly there is a knock on the door.  Between the knock and the pup barking and growling her little head off, I jump startled.  It was Anthony with a spray bottle of bug juice.  "Okay, where's your bug?" he says, holding the bottle like a weapon.  I show him where it was and that it is gone.  He is totally relieved, hands me the bottle and turns toward the door.  "Good luck with that," he says as he runs out the door.  Sweet kid :)

So I take down the pokey plastic cover and start spraying the hell out of the valance.  Bug juice is dripping down on the floor, on my head, but I keep spraying.  I run and get a big towel for the floor (because I am not smart enough to get one first) and continue to spray and drip.  As I come around the inside of the valance, I see how the bug got there and where it went. A gaping hole where the valance was connected.  I spray the hell out of the hole.  I then put the pokey plastic cover back into the box, cracking it a bit because it is brittle--the 70s were a long time ago--and let it continue to drip onto the plastic.  I go to bed.

The next morning I immediately looked at the light box and found not one but two almost dead bugs.  Both were about two inches long and twitching on their backs.  One was just twitch  twitch  twitch and the other was twitchtwitchtwitchtwitch flapping his little bug feet in the air.  "Let then suffer!" I said to myself.  I couldn't stop watching them and finally had to give all of us some peace.  So I took down the pokey plastic cover (careful not to let the twitchers slide off) and SPRAYED THE HELL OUT OF THEM.  If they could have swam, they would have swam across the pokey plastic thing.  The slow twitcher stopped.  The fast twitchers flapped his little bug feet a few times and slowed his twitching until one last twitch and then done.

I flushed them down the toilet.  Yeah, they like water so much, they can have it!  Then I resprayed the pokey plastic thing and let it dry and replaced it into the light box.  Of course, I broke a corner piece when I did that, so I had to glue it back onto place without removing it (cause I would have broken more if I removed it).  I should be good for at least a month :)

On my way home from visiting my mom, I stopped at Target and bought more bug spray--one bottle for my hesitant hero Anthony and one for me.  All's right with the world.  

peace~~~