Our two child things (5 and 2) are currently in Hawaii, but we are a military family, and we live where the Army tells us. This blog is designed to keep us in touch with our family and the friends we have made along the way, to offer insight into our turbulent military lifestyle, and to share our experiences as we try out "homing school." So glad you stopped by!

Monday, October 12, 2009

This Place May Turn Me into a Neatfreak

I have never been one to be obsessive about cleanliness. It's one of my flaws. One of the many. But living in Hawaii is changing that about me. It's the bugs!

I can't say I wasn't warned. Anyone who knew anything about Hawaii told us, "The bugs are terrible, and the schools are terrible. Other than that, you'll love it there!" So, I knew ahead of time that critters would be a problem.

I didn't know, however, that that meant I would be greeted into my new home by a baseball-sized spindle-legged spider crawling out of the kitchen sink our first night here. I'm going into convulsions just thinking about that thing. Scott killed it. That moment was one in which I wondered how I will survive the next deployment.

The next day, though, I regretted the murder of the poor spider, as it would have been a natural predator to the MONSTROUS cockroach we discovered had made its home underneath our stove. This thing was huge, and that is said by someone who grew up in a hot, humid place where cockroaches flourish.

Not to worry...the largest gecko I have ever seen moved into our house soon thereafter and had its way with grandpa roach. It was either the gecko or the Raid sprayed blindly beneath the stove for a week that got him. Or maybe he just died of old age.

Using pesticides around the house does make me a little nervous, especially with child things around. It will only be worse when the baby is crawling around and putting things in his mouth. Here's a solution suggested to us by a public health worker: visine.

Apparently eye drops contain boric acid, which is deadly to roaches, but not harmful to people. The worker instructed us to line the perimeter of drawers and cabinets with eye drops to keep roaches out. Huh...I never would have guessed. I don't know if it really works, but it's certainly worth a try. Too bad it doesn't work on spiders and ants too, though.

1 comment:

Steve, Amanda, Kyle , Owen, and Madilyn said...

Spiders and roaches...humm, I would not get a long well with that combo. Get more ghekos for your house...they eat those nasty little things. And really they aren't bad. As a kid we had a family that lived on our refridgerator. Hawaii was also the same place my mom found me crawling around on the floor with a huge dead roach body in my mouth. :)