Subscribe to Desicritics
Co-existing With Unwanted Guests
Deepti Lamba
After living in small apartments for over four years in America I was looking forward to returning to my farm house in Kudlu in Bangalore. The thrill of seeing my son run around the house and the garden was overshadowed by the inhabitants that had been occupying the house freely during our absence.
They had me screaming blue murder in the middle of the night, cursing their lowly existence as I threw my newly cooked food in the trash as one of them slipped and slithered out of the dish or had me leave the light on during the night and hope and pray that they didn't decide to share my bed without my knowledge.
I'm talking about rats, mice and lizards and what's worse is that they are procreating at a rate faster than the speed at which I am able to get rid of them. Mind you, I'm saying get rid of them and not kill them. As a rule I generally set them free outside my little farm house and watch the night swallow them up as I'd wish them a fair adieu and wonder which neighbor I had done a nasty disservice to by setting them free.
Killing rodents and lizards has never been my forte. My mom despite being a gentle 'born again' Hindu believes in drowning rodents in a special rat bucket, my mother in law believes in indirect assassination orders without the knowledge of how the killing was done and my sister believes in rat poison.
I, however cannot bring myself to kill anything more than a mosquito. Even a roach has me screaming and jumping as I'd throw sandals and shoes at it while it makes an easy escape.
The reason why I can't kill is because of the squishy stuff that comes out of these pests after they are crushed to the ground. It's a mish mash of yellow, white and red liquid; quite similar to a stinky puss that one cannot look at forget about cleaning it.
My home, unfortunately, is crawling with these creatures and there are two people here who are pretty good at killing them. One even proudly calls himself a pest killing Ninja.
Aaman, the One Stroke Ninja, can kill lizards with one hard blow. They would wriggle a bit and then die within minutes. He doesn't think twice before hitting a lizard on the wall with his shoes .One should see him stalking a baby Lizard as it run for its life with Aaman screaming behind it - 'Give me something to squash it with. A book! Damn it! Give me that telephone directory!'
And my response would be- 'The directory? Are you crazy? Who will remove all that squishy gore that will come out of it? I will have to throw the book. Watch it! Its heading into my bedroom. I can't sleep there. You promised me that there wouldn't be any lizards or mice in the house but the place is infested!.'
Aaman would be quick to snuff that little life under his shoe and while standing on the dead body of the lizard would find himself arguing with his irate wife
"When did I promise you that there won't be any pests? I'm not a pest control guy."
"You said that in Boston."
And we'd continue to have an inane argument till the next pest or a mosquito buzzing around distracted us.
Personally I have nothing against these creatures and could easily co exist with them if they didn't bite or were so ugly in their appearances. I even tolerated a mouse in my bedroom for over two weeks as it scurried around with a little paper in its mouth and looked darn cute. Cute, till it somehow managed to get inside my old air conditioner, got electrocuted and died, leaving behind a stinky rotting body that I had to plead with Jannu to take out.
Jannu is our home caretaker and despite being a soft spoken guy with a gentle demeanor is another pest killing warrior. His movements are fluid and precise. Within five minutes the pest is either driven out (i.e. if I am around ) or killed in my absence.
He generally gets a poker face when he is on a killing spree. His eyes would become intense and he grab a newspaper and wham within two hard strikes the little creature would meet its maker.
All this death and destruction of these little unwanted guests has become a daily chore in our home. Though it adds a bit of drama to our daily routine but it's a nuisance as well. Imagine re-washing dishes before using them or finding holes in your flour bag courtesy a curious rat.
This fervor will hopefully soon come to an end once I have found a good pest control agency and have them do away with my unwanted guests who have no say in the fact that they will be paying with their lives for their free tenancy of my home.
Deepti Lamba is an author, besides editing at Desicritics
Co-existing With Unwanted Guests
RSS:
- Subscribe to RSS 2.0 feeds for:
- » Comments on this article
- » Culture
- » Desicritics.org articles by Deepti Lamba
- » Deepti Lamba's personal weblog
- » All Opinion articles
- » All Desicritics.org articles
Amrita
URL
June 2, 2006
07:14 PM
ew ew ew ewwwwwww! i had german cockraoches in my apt once. bleurgh! my skin just crawled reading this
temporal
URL
June 2, 2006
07:33 PM
dee:
jeez and you invited me to stay over?
;)
and aaman ...i can imagine him suited up a la bill murray in ghostbusters waving his wand
wow...there should be pics with this
no, on second thoughts...no pics:)
Sujatha
URL
June 2, 2006
11:00 PM
For cockroaches, there's an amazing, odorless product that looks exactly like chapathi dough. The guy (the real pest control ninja) comes in, takes tiny rounds of this dough and pastes it all over the house. And cockroaches gayab in a few days. It's a monthly treatment. It's harmless if ingested (the guy demonstrated it by eating some in front of me - and he came back the next month, alive and well). You should ask for this instead of the smelly sprays and stuff.
The first time we got it here, V was wondering why I was letting N stick chapathi dough all over the house and he started scraping them off before I screamed for him to stop. :)
Preeti
June 2, 2006
11:07 PM
How can anyone kill or sqash a big fat lizard?
Never heard of it before....doesn't the tail seperate from the body into pieces!!!
Dee
URL
June 2, 2006
11:45 PM
Temporal: Its just a matter of a few days till we make the wilderness habitable;)
Amrita: In Dallas we had roaches the size of my palm , I'd wake Aaman up in the middle of the night to kill the roaches.
Sujatha: Good idea, will hire the real Ninja soon enough.
Preeti: Killing those cold blooded reptiles is an art form and crushing any living being to death, for that matter, would get you some sort of gut and gore.
Shantanu Dutta
June 3, 2006
01:31 AM
I am always wondering about the irrationality of human beings. Gujarat is full of vegetarians , people who would shudder at the thought of slaughtering a goat or a chicken - is full of Jains who hold all life sacred and yet it is the scene today of state sponsored killing fields where human life is taken without blinking an eye lid.
DrPolitics
URL
June 3, 2006
01:55 AM
Deepti:) says....Killing rodents and lizards has never been her forte....great,,, the way to go:)
We love our small friends--we value their lives.
Cockroaches mainly consume (remains of) animal waste. We need them...
House lizards catch mosquitos, We need them. The House Lizard (gecko) is a harmless little animal. ...
Rat & Mice are more "productive?" We need them....
Remember World Rat day is April 4 th
TO THE WORLD, YOU ARE ONE PERSON
TO A RAT, YOU ARE THE WORLD
-CHARLIE S.
Sakshi
URL
June 3, 2006
02:55 AM
Welcome to India !! :)
Kishore
URL
June 3, 2006
05:58 AM
Looks like u had a pretty good party welcoming u... :) all the fun is just beginning...
Welcome to India and Bangalore... :)
temporal
URL
June 3, 2006
12:15 PM
DrP:
:)
so the new slogan would be insects of the world, unite?
well nimby!
DrPolitics
URL
June 4, 2006
12:50 AM
:) temporal...inte här!
Deepti
URL
June 4, 2006
01:03 AM
The skirmishes continue - looks like they are on the winning side, due to sheer numbers - but the fight will go on till the last lizard is nuked, bird-flu-ed, and bombed out of its measly existence.
DrPolitics
URL
June 4, 2006
01:56 AM
:)The Earth is mother for human beings, animals and nature. It bears countless fruits, which are offered not only to people, but also to the animal world. The animals are a part of mother Earth. They bear in themselves the awareness of their Creator, which is unity, and they want to be our friends...
Kamla
URL
June 4, 2006
01:57 AM
Deepti:
Boy, you got lots of suggestions. Sujatha's one about the odorless one ....sorry Sujatha "that simply don't work." I say that because my mom has been using this non-smelly option for a few years...the man comes religiously once a month and annoints the home. Guess what? I have spotted cockroaches :-) My mom says: "Yeh India hai beta."
So here is yet another suggestion.
The best option that I have discovered is to get those insect repellent plastic disc thingies from Home Depot and stick them in various corners of the house. THe cockroaches are truly gayab!
Hope this helps!
Kamla
sami
URL
June 4, 2006
02:21 AM
himesh reshammiya's compositions might come handy in such a scenario, give it a try :)
Ray Grairo
URL
June 4, 2006
03:57 AM
Deepti:)
Leave empty egg shells around. Lizards hate them.
temporal
URL
June 4, 2006
03:11 PM
dee:
watch out:)
these crawlies are so very inspiring
Sujatha
URL
June 7, 2006
12:32 AM
Kamla, that odorless thing worked for me though. We were rid of them for a year and a half! Haven't seen any roaches yet in the new house, so biding my time to see if we need it here.
Deepti lamba
URL
June 7, 2006
07:39 AM
Rats gone, next on the killing spree list- lizards
drac
June 7, 2006
07:55 AM
Don't kill lizards!! They'll just go away on their own! I agree with #4.
That dough may kill all the roaches, but won't the dough remain behind as unsightly lumps of white? My house was infested with cockroaches, and we called for professional treatment. Since then, I haven't seen a cockroach for years that now I'm disgusted by those things :P
drac
June 7, 2006
08:09 AM
In case someone is interested, the professional treatment requires you to vacate the house for an hour, then they'll spray something, and shut all windows and exhaust vents, and then, even they'll leave to have tea. It's like securing a house full of terrorists. After an hour, you'll see all dead cockroaches - funny part is, they crawl out in the open and then die.
No leftovers (other than the dead insects), no side-effects (I'm still healthy ;)). Well that's my story :)
Aaman
URL
June 7, 2006
08:43 AM
We may have to get that WMD-approach done to clean out the house, but do they need repeat performances to ensure success?
Sujatha
URL
June 7, 2006
09:57 AM
Drac, they do leave lumps, but you can have them leave it in discreet places, plus they remove the old ones the next month around. The attraction for me was that it was non-toxic and in a house with children that was a welcome thing.
Deepti lamba
URL
June 7, 2006
12:44 PM
yeah they leave lumps after we go over the humps..ehehe..wrong thread;) but seriously I am at my wits end with these baby lizards slithering around. Drac, if you are willing to adopt some cold blooded reptiles, I'll mail them to you with all my love;)
Suj, the lumps sound good, especially now that I have guests coming over next week and fumigation will have to take a back seat.
Aaman
URL
June 7, 2006
12:51 PM
My humps, my humps!
temporal
URL
June 7, 2006
01:05 PM
there is a poem in all the humping, bumping, dumping we witness here;)
(no ..am not writing one)
re: do they need repeat performance?
yes, depending on how bad the infestation is...first revisit in six months and then every year ( to renew acquaintanceship)
(and yes close all vents and windows and leave the house for a few hours -- and when you return -- as an added caution open and ventilate the house for an hour before letting the kids in)
Aaman
URL
June 7, 2006
01:07 PM
Oh, I thought we leave the kids behind;)
Add your comment