Thursday, January 18, 2018

Uninvited Guests

So it's no secret that I am not a fan of critters in our home who I did not personally invite in.

Since we've lived in this house, we've dealt with uninvited guests as small as ants to as large as flying squirrels (not kidding, he came down the chimney. We thought he was a regular old red squirrel, and Adam was making fun of me for being skittish, joking that he wasn't going to fly down from the curtain rod at me. He was wrong.) We have had skunks in the garage as well as under the porch. We had a nasty infestation of flies (also via the chimney, courtesy of another animal that died in there. We recapped the chimney after the second incident proved the first one wasn't a fluke). We've had plenty of birds make it into the garage, and one that even made it into the house.

We've had a normal run of suburban bugs. As an arachnophobic, we've had more spiders than I care to deal with (admittedly, not many. But any spiders are more than I care to deal with). Madison's room seems to be a haven for stink bugs, and in the spring, we usually get ladybugs. Once the weather is nice, we end up with flies because we have two kids who never close the freaking door!

The frustrating pieces is that we try to be so good about prevention. We recapped the chimney (and I'm kind of embarassed that it took us two unwanted visitors down it to do). We have a pest control company treat us four times a year (they claim that spraying for the other bugs will cut down on the food source for spiders, therefore eliminating them as well). We try to keep the garage door closed so skunks and birds don't wander in, and we continue to hammer into the girls to close the door close the door close the door!

The one place we have never dealt with critters is in the car. Truly, this is fairly surprising. The girls eat in the car, usually out of necessity, and no matter how much I get on them about making sure to get the trash and mess out, they "forget" a lot. It's my intention to clean out and vacuum the car once a week, but that's a lot easier said than done when it's this cold.

Until recently, when I noticed a weird pile of what looked like shredded paper. Bizarre, but hey, I have kids. Then I noticed that my candy bar, which was unopened, had a nibbled corner. Denial, denial, denial.

Then I saw it. On the floor of the front seat. Unmistakable. Droppings.

OH NO.

I've written before about how I think this car knows that the days for it are numbered, and it's trying to make me pay for that, little by little. I have had this car for over NINE YEARS, and SEVEN of those have included a snacking child, and NOW I get to deal with Mickey?

Fortunately, I think I got it early enough. I googled frantically, vacuumed every crevice, and then stuck dryer sheets into every nook and cranny. If those didn't do it, I got some Scent Away packs off Amazon and tucked them here and there, which make my car smell delightfully minty. And I haven't seen another dropping since.

But I'm telling you, the wrath on the uninvited guests will only grow if they DARE to mess with my new car.
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