INSECT CONTROL AND THE "DOWN" SIDE TO HAVING A FORMER SURGICAL NURSE CLEAN YOUR HOUSE

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 In the 2.5 years that this former ruin has been inhabitable, we have been trying, with mixed success, to convince the local fauna that this is now OUR house. A pacifist at heart, I have on each floor a special bug transport system that consists of a plastic cup and a special designated art postcard that I slide under the "cupped" insect in question, whom I then usher out the door. The downstairs postcard, the first piece of mail I ever received here, is from a former student telling me about what a wonderful time he was having studying French in Paris. The upstairs card is a night scene of a couple in evening dress dancing alongside the Leaning Tower of Pisa. To have someone as thorough and wise as V to clean our house every few weeks is a great privilege, but unlike me, she is NOT a hoarder. Therefore, if I want to keep something whose utility is not readily apparent, I must hide it from her. My bug transport system falls into that category. The problem is that when I return to the house for vacations, after being away for any length of time, I can't always recall where I hid the components of my special bug-transport system. And by the time I find them, my prey has escaped to far beyond "cupping" reach. Oh, well...

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