Bugbomb!!

[prog]

Noticed fruit flies hanging out near the sink. OK: time to do the dishes. Turn on water, flies skedaddle to wherever fruit flies go when the jig is up. Fill up sink, do dishes, drain sink to get at the silverware and finish up.

Notice sizeable clump of very recently deceased insect pupae in the corner of the sink. That wasn't my first thought. My first thought was: huh, seeds? rice? What is this, and why didn't they wash away? Why are they stuck... oh dear god

They were larger than fruit flies, but then again the poor babies had just drowned in a flash flood and probably took on some water. Close inspection revealed segmentation and what looked like eye-spots. So it was either some particularly exotic kind of rice pilaf I don't remember eating, or I have just narrowly averted what would have been the unquestionable nadir of my bachelor career thus far.

This page suggests that I dodged that bullet by less than a day.

The dishes were untouched, except for one spoon that many were clinging to. You may be relieved to know I trashed it, after observing the peculiar property that direct faucet blasts wouldn't budge them and yet I could push them around with my finger. Nature is mysterious and beautiful.

Update: Having destroyed their legacy, I am now dealing with a Fly Insurgency. They're being openly vindictive, doing things like walking around inside my toilet and then landing on my toothbrush, taking what revenge they can in the moments before I boil them away with horrible fly-eating chemicals. These flies have nothing left to lose, I guess.

Update 2: I must recognize the fact that I may have hit nadir anyway, just not digging quite as deep as I could have. I did, after all, finally succeed in cultivating a breeding ground for vermin. I mean, literally. Sigh.

Comments

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

When I took biology II in high school, we raised fruitflies in order to study their many mutations. The larvae and pupae ARE larger than the adults, which seems to be relatively common for insects in general.

PS That was the funniest thing I've read uh, all day, anyway.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I've been beset by winged insects, as well. The plums in my fruit bowl have been jettisoned into the trash, having hatched a brood of fruitflies. And last night, I discovered a small infestation of flour moths. I now have every foodstuff in the pasta and baking cabinet sealed in ziplock bags. (In the process, I discarded some spaghetti marked "Best Before March 2003")

[prog.livejournal.com]

It's gotta be Bug Season, somehow... On my Monday evening walk I was near to choking on all the houseflies clouding around the curbside trash, across the whole neighborhood.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Check your ceiling for cocoons! The worms crawl up to the highest place they can and pupate there. (And they can get into ziplocs, grr.) I think I prevented a major infestation one time after I discovered that. I spent a good part of the evening scanning every ceiling in the house and picking cocoons off the ceiling.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Ew.

Amusing, though.

[jtroutman.livejournal.com]

You know, housekeeping is not all bad.

I mean, how you can you complete your transition into full blown metro-sexual AND stylish .com entrepreneur without some level of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy type fastidiousness?

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It is _really_ easy to wind up with fruit flies. Or those goddamn pesky moths (which will also eat chocolate, the little fuckers!). At least it's relatively easy to get rid of fruit flies.

Now, if you have mold growing in your sink? You have cleanliness issues.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

this was the grossest thing. i even threw up in my mouth a little.

the only bug infestation i have had in recent times was a lady bug infestation about two years ago? cool, right? wrong. it was creepy, like twilight zone creepy.

Nice blog

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