Bug of the Month Club

I moved into my current apartment just under a year ago.  What I didn't know when I moved in, was that this apartment had an active subscription to the Bug of the Month Club.  Never heard of it?  Don't worry, I made it up, as far as I know.  Why do I think this?

Welcome Neighbor
A little over a month after I moved in, I started seeing this black spiders throughout my apartment.  They were in all different areas.  I found one above my fridge, a few in my guest bedroom, a few in my room (on under my pillow in the morning yikes!).  So, I called the leasing office to get pest control to come spray.  Because I don't like spiders.  Remember how I said that centipedes are my second most hated bug to kill?  Well, spiders are number one.  I hate spiders.  I don't care how good they are for the environment, as soon as I find them in my apartment, they got to go.  If they are outside, I leave them but inside, no.

Anyways, pest control did come.  I even stayed home from work that day so I could watch the cats and have the guy spray in every room.  After that, I went to my nearest hardware store and they recommended some spray I could use along the windows and entryways to prevent more from coming in.  My obsessive compulsive paranoia paid off.  I didn't see any more of those black spiders during the rest of the summer.


Mind If We Join You?
So, the spiders were gone.  This was good.  My subscription apparently had expired.  Or maybe spiders were a free trial for an upgrade for the Bug of the Month Club.  My next entertainment was ants.  Not the huge carpenter ants we had back home, these were small black ones.  Which the ants back home is a really entertaining story, by the way, on how we found out how they were getting into the house.  It involves beer, a tree, phone wires, and a party.  There were no trees, phone wires, or a party when I found the ants in my apartment though.  I did consume a few beers though because, well, I'm me.  Anyways.  I noticed a few ants in my bathroom, specifically around my tub.  It had been raining pretty heavy the few days prior to this discovery so I just assumed they were coming in for shelter and would go away because this actually happened one time in my old apartment.

Well, a few days later 5 ants turned into 10 ants.  And then 15 ants.  I didn't know where the heck they were coming from.  I just knew they were getting their friends and having a party. I went back to the hardware store and got some bait traps, the kind where there is borax mixed in with the solution so they take it back to the nest and hopefully eventually kills the queen (yes, I did become an ant expert during this ordeal).  Anyways, with this stuff, it actually attracts more ants before eventually killing them all.  So I was able to find out where they were coming from.  There is a gap between my water faucet in the tub and the wall.  That was their entry point. Eventually, their numbers were diminishing.  Then, the worst happened.  It rained again outside.  Guess what?  They had more friends.  All of the sudden the number of ants coming for the bait was at a max.  Eventually I decided to do a mass murder while taking a shower and remove the baits.  I blocked off their entry point by putting plumbers putty around the faucet.  Pretty soon no ants remained in the bathroom.  I thought I was in the clear.

My handiwork

Oh nay nay.  One day, I opened my laundry closet and found a swarm of ants in there.  The reason?  Sascode didn't eat one of his treats that was still in his carrier (I use this area for storage because I don't have a washer or dryer).  I cleaned up the room and the ants went away again (and I plugged up their entry point I love plumbers putty now!).  Well, a few days later they were back.  I called up the leasing office and pest control came again.  After a couple more requests, I finally got someone to come and professionally fill in the gaps along the walls where they were coming in. So, ants = gone.


How About Some of Us?
For the next few months, I had a few visitors.  Silverfish (small gray centipedes are how I think of them) occasionally pop up. Those, I don't mind actually and if they're too high, I just leave them because they probably like ants and spiders.  I had two centipedes total, one Epa killed for me.  The most annoying one was a cockroach that I literally watched come into the apartment from a gap between the wall (see a pattern here?) and the hose you hook up a dryer too.  That could not be plugged with plumbers putty.  Tape did a good job though.

Another job by Epilogical

Free Upgrade Again

The past month, the spiders came back.  This time at least they stayed in one area.  The dining area.  Guess what?  I had pest control come and spray in the dining and living room area.  Have seen a few since then but not on a regular basis.

I'm hoping the Bug of the Month Club has is only a year's subscription because I'm getting sick of it.  My motto is "if you don't pay rent, you got to go."  The cats and I are also on a don't ask don't tell agreement.  I don't ask what they find when I'm not looking, and they don't tell me.