Thursday Thoughts # 36
"Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka."
"That some kind of Russian saying?" I asked.
"Have you seen traditional folk dances?" Sanya asked. "Imagine them being done by someone with a bottle of vodka in them. Laughter abounds, and you survive another day."
He shrugged. "Or break your neck. Either way it's pain relief."
From the Harry Dresden novel Changes by Jim Butcher
Today's thought is fly swats. I have one. Many years ago, everyone had one. Well, every household had one.
this is mine. You may know these by another name.
nice long handle, gives good swish when swung through the air.
The idea is to smack at the fly or flies and hopefully kill the little buggers. It's best to wait until they have landed, makes an easier target.
One of my favourite TV series is Mrs Brown's Boys.
In this "Mrs Brown" is often seen swinging a teatowel trying to swat a fly and a lot of the time anyone in "her"* way gets a smack from that teatowel.
Sometimes on purpose.
Her best friend, Agnes, calls her fly swat a flapper.
* It's a man in a dress. (Brendan O'Carroll) The show is rude and hilarious; set in Dublin.
Back to the story. For a while now, since the beginning of summer, I've had some tiny moth like critters flying about the place, one a day, sometimes two, so tiny they're a shadow flitting past your peripheral vision and you wonder if you actually saw anything at all. Tiny fat round bodies, black, with tiny fat round wings. If I could catch a photo of one, I'd show you.
I've been spraying with Mortein trying to kill them, but I can only take so much of that without needing a gas mask or at least several extra hits on my inhaler, so I decided the fly swat was a better option. At least I'd get some exercise leaping about and swishing it through the air.
So I went looking for it. The swat, not the moth.
Do you think I could find it? No way. It wasn't anywhere.
After several weeks of searching and one more can of Mortein, I thought to myself I'd better buy a new one. And off I went to the shops. Woolworths doesn't carry them.
But I did get more ice cream. (*~*)
Back home again, I made a new shopping list, chicken, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, fly swat, and told myself I'd walk the extra few minutes to the Foodland supermarket across the main road the very next day. They'd have a fly swat for sure. They've got everything.
Time rolled on, as time does so well, and I had reason to get something out of that cupboard that's under the laundry tub. You all know the one, metal door, hard to open, noisy, and the cat litter tray is right in front of it. Well I got that door open, didn't take too much pulling, retrieved the thing I wanted and there it was! my missing fly swat! what the heck was it doing in there? I don't remember putting it in there.
Angel thought I'd bought him a new toy and played with it for quite a while, but hasn't touched it since.
More importantly, I haven't seen a single moth since I found it.
"That some kind of Russian saying?" I asked.
"Have you seen traditional folk dances?" Sanya asked. "Imagine them being done by someone with a bottle of vodka in them. Laughter abounds, and you survive another day."
He shrugged. "Or break your neck. Either way it's pain relief."
From the Harry Dresden novel Changes by Jim Butcher
Today's thought is fly swats. I have one. Many years ago, everyone had one. Well, every household had one.
The idea is to smack at the fly or flies and hopefully kill the little buggers. It's best to wait until they have landed, makes an easier target.
One of my favourite TV series is Mrs Brown's Boys.
In this "Mrs Brown" is often seen swinging a teatowel trying to swat a fly and a lot of the time anyone in "her"* way gets a smack from that teatowel.
Sometimes on purpose.
Her best friend, Agnes, calls her fly swat a flapper.
* It's a man in a dress. (Brendan O'Carroll) The show is rude and hilarious; set in Dublin.
Back to the story. For a while now, since the beginning of summer, I've had some tiny moth like critters flying about the place, one a day, sometimes two, so tiny they're a shadow flitting past your peripheral vision and you wonder if you actually saw anything at all. Tiny fat round bodies, black, with tiny fat round wings. If I could catch a photo of one, I'd show you.
I've been spraying with Mortein trying to kill them, but I can only take so much of that without needing a gas mask or at least several extra hits on my inhaler, so I decided the fly swat was a better option. At least I'd get some exercise leaping about and swishing it through the air.
So I went looking for it. The swat, not the moth.
Do you think I could find it? No way. It wasn't anywhere.
After several weeks of searching and one more can of Mortein, I thought to myself I'd better buy a new one. And off I went to the shops. Woolworths doesn't carry them.
But I did get more ice cream. (*~*)
Back home again, I made a new shopping list, chicken, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, fly swat, and told myself I'd walk the extra few minutes to the Foodland supermarket across the main road the very next day. They'd have a fly swat for sure. They've got everything.
Time rolled on, as time does so well, and I had reason to get something out of that cupboard that's under the laundry tub. You all know the one, metal door, hard to open, noisy, and the cat litter tray is right in front of it. Well I got that door open, didn't take too much pulling, retrieved the thing I wanted and there it was! my missing fly swat! what the heck was it doing in there? I don't remember putting it in there.
Angel thought I'd bought him a new toy and played with it for quite a while, but hasn't touched it since.
More importantly, I haven't seen a single moth since I found it.
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Fly swatter, up here. Hope the moths left on their own, without laying eggs.(I don't know how to make a little unsmiley face).
ReplyDeleteSure way to get rid of flies is to pull out the swatter!
ReplyDeleteKind of like washing your car if you want it to rain.
Dad always said once you've killed one fly with the swatter they can smell death on it and they won't come near.
ReplyDeleteThey might still be there, but having a little moth vacation, swigging drinks with teensy umbrellas.
ReplyDeleteHate to tell you, but you might just have pantry moths. They often travel in dry cat food or cereal boxes.
You might want to check your flour, pancake mix, corn meal, oat meal, and on and on. For a while I was keeping every possible dry item I could think of in the freezer.
We used to have terrible weevil infestations in our pantry. Now everything not canned does a 24 hour stint in the freezer before going on the shelf. No weevils for years!!
DeleteHaha! Love that exert! I'll have to check it out sometime. Always down for a new good read!
ReplyDeleteHi RIver,
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Mrs Brown's boys (I just don't get it!!!) but it is very popular oop north!
I can confirm that teatowels are very effective against flies though.
:o)
Cheers
PM
For Joanne - Hold the "Shift" key and press the "Semicolon/colon" key. Continue holding the "Shift" key and press the "Left parenthesis/9" key to create :( the "Sad" face.
ReplyDeleteWent out for fly spray, came back with ice cream... sounds like something I do :)
Always the way, things go missing when you need them, when found you don't need them any more.
ReplyDeleteI like Mrs Browns boys too.
Merle.............
Joanne; unsmiley face is colon : and bracket ( together = :(
ReplyDeletejoeh; luckily I've never had a fly problem, not usually moths either, that's probably why I stashed the swatter where I couldn't find it. I think maybe the moths migrated from the upstairs flat, there's often a "bad food" smell coming from there and these moths looked like bigger versions of those tiny black midges you get around rotting fruit and veg.
Delores; true enough, like squishing aphids on the plant and leaving them there. But I haven't killed anything with the swatter, the little buggers just disappeared on their own :)
Marty Damon; nope, pantry moths are different, longer, thinner and pale brown females, darker brown males. I know this because my daughter has them. We've been setting pheromone traps there for over 18 months now. Caught hundreds! Now the latest batch of eggs is hatching, so I'm checking her pantry goods twice a week. She didn't realise what they were at first and they went right through the house laying eggs in every room, in books, papers, boxes, behind cupboards. I threw out so much of her dry goods, then put everything else in screw top plastic containers, so if anything hatched it would be contained and easily disposed of. Her pantry is now clear, but eggs in other parts of the house are still hatching. My own pantry is also clear of moths and weevils.
fishducky; all dry packaged goods in my pantry are put into clear screwtop plastic containers, with a bay leaf inside. Apparently weevils die from the bay leaves or don't hatch or something, I don't know exactly. If I forget the bay leaf, at least anything hatching will be contained and more easily seen and disposed of.
Izzy Mason; welcome to drifting. That exerpt is from Changes by Jim Butcher. The book is number 12 in the Harry Dresden series, so it will make more sense if you read the others first maybe. There are 15 books in the series so far, plus a couple of anthologies of short stories that fit in between the other books.
Plasman; there's really nothing much to "get" about Mrs. Brown's Boys, it's just a lot of rude hilarity with a bit of a story line to each episode. It's very easy to watch.
I remember smacking flies with teatowels at my mum's home years ago. The trick is to remember that flies take off backwards.
Vicki; I've been eating far too much ice cream. Yesterday I tried to put on a pair of last summer's shorts and couldn't button them without sucking in my belly :( so I slid into the elastic waisted ones and sat down with a bowl of ice cream again while I waited for the washing machine to finish.
Merle; that's so true. I couldn't find the flea treatment for Angel either, so went out and bought a new packet; when I put it away, there was the missing one right where it should be, and I hadn't seen it!
The moths are afraid of you wielding a fly swat and have beaten a considered retreat, to plan. My mother wouldn't use a fly swat or sticky papers. It was always the long hand pump full of insecticide that dripped onto your dinner plate as she vigorously pumped god knows what chemical into the air. They quickly succumbed to the poison, or just drowned.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a fly swatter. Perhaps Angel was clearing your home of all those pesty flying creatures while you were sleeping at night believing him to be sleeping, too! :)
ReplyDeleteI love Agnes Brown...how can one not?? lol
I usually find something only after I have bought a replacement. And I am glad that the beasties have disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Harry Dresden about laughter. Vodka? Not my tipple.
Andrew; I remember those hand pumps. Dad would fill ours with a bottle of liquid Mortein and spray the bedrooms a half hour before we went to bed. We'd get in there and sweep dead mosquitoes off the bedding before we climbed in.
ReplyDeleteLee; he certainly chased a few, I'd hear him leaping about and sometimes would see him staring up at what i thought was nothing, but he'd be twitching his tail and his paws were getting ready to leap up.
I love Agnes Brown too and made a mistake in my post, I've just realised. Her best friend is Winnie and I said Agnes.
I remember using the old pump spray for the mozzies and flies...also fly papers and swats...
ReplyDeletehugs... Barb xxx