It sounds like I'm living in a bad zombie flick. Actually, not so much. I might almost prefer the zombies. They're bigger, and slower, and don't appear to breed as quickly. Instead, I get these guys:
The ones I am particularly afflicted with seem to be Order: Julida Family: Parajulidae Genus: Aniulus. I can't pin down the exact species. But i think that's pretty close enough, no? Whatever they are, I really don't like them. Since I came back from Malta, I'd been noticing a few of them scattered about my house, but nothing to overly upset me. For the most part, I try and just leave a bug alone if he's not blatantly freaking me out. Seems like the nice karmic thing to do . Except then a few days ago, I noticed that the frequency of these little guys was starting to climb. The first few days it was one or two, then it was 5 or 6, the previous day it had been ten. Yesterday morning I came downstairs and, my hand to God, I killed no fewer than 45 in a 10 minute time frame.
I'm not normally a squeamish kind of girl, but I HATE bugs. My mother once said that you are either a spider person or a snake person. In general, people find one of these two to be horribly upsetting, and lose the capability of behaving rationally. She's a snake person, I'm a spider person, but the dislike of spiders extends to most things big, segmented and crawly. I can deal with tiny ants, and flies if I have to, but that's kind of the extent of my tolerance. These millipedes have been a serious trial.
This little genocidal event more or less set the tone for my day. I think I hit triple digits sometime in the evening, but after about 65 I gave up counting. It was too upsetting. I've called the rental office that administers my place as well as others nearby, apparently the entire block is affected. On the upside this means I don't have to pay for the exterminator. On the downside, it means that he or she will not be here until tomorrow, and the bug onslaught will continue until then (and possibly afterward).
In the meantime, I have armed myself with RAID bug barrier and spritzed the baseboards liberally, I think it's made a difference, but I'm still tripping over creepy crawlies with regularity. I've also found a gap between the baseboard and the floor about 3 feet long near my front door....can't help but wonder if this might be one of the places that they are originating from (then again, i'm pretty sure). So, one of today's projects will be to get a nice supply of caulk to lay by for after the exterminator has been.
It's a bugs life....
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