Rat Dance - Oh What a Feeling!

Mary's life was just peachy, until she met a stranger whisker to whisker....

Mary Elise lives in a second story loft in southwest Atlanta. The area she lives in is undergoing big changes. Developers are buying up old (some of them turn-of-the-century) warehouses and converting them into upscale, hardwood-floored lofts. Much of southwest Atlanta still consists of dilapidated houses and businesses, and vagrants and the homeless still roam the streets, but it is changing nonetheless. Loft complexes are surrounded by tall, wrought-iron fences with electronic security gates, and the building entrances are just as secure. Most of the loft inhabitants are young, upwardly mobile professionals transplanted from the suburbs. Twenty years ago, they were called yuppies. Besides the ongoing mass renovations above ground, Atlanta's entire sewer system is undergoing a massive retro-fit.

Mary works downtown at an advertising firm in a 50-story building. She has a great boyfriend, and her commute to work is less than two miles. Her life was bliss until a couple weeks ago. She had worked late on a Wednesday, left the office around seven. When she got home, she poured herself a glass of Zinfandel, sat on the sofa and began watching the news. Finishing her wine, she got up, placed her glass on the kitchen counter, then went to the bathroom. Her boyfriend would be there at nine. She washed the makeup off her face first, then pulled her panties down and sat on the toilet.

At first, she thought she had imagined the slight tickling on her nether regions and ignored it. But it happened again, and this time it felt like a slight nibble. Spooked, she jumped up, whirled around, and found herself looking at a fifteen-inch long Norway rat... Mary Elise has been staying at her boyfriend's place for two weeks, Prozac is her new friend, and she doesn't know if she'll ever go back to her loft.

The best way to deal with a rat that enters your home through the toilet, is to beat it to death with the plunger. Otherwise, there are numerous tools available at YouDoItPestControl to control rats in and around a structure. They carry Contrac, Final, and Fastrac bait blocks and pellets and Aegis and Protecta bait boxes in which to securely place the bait. You Do It also carries both rat and mouse Snaptraps as well as large and small rodent glueboards. As a matter of fact, they have a gigantic pest catalog. Click on over and check it out!

Bugzilla out --

Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere Bugs!

I just stepped on a bug this morning, and not on purpose. Nope, no sireeeee. I would have avoided it at all cost because it was big, black and yougly. Ugly to you northerners. I guess it somehow got transported into my bedroom from its home in Loch Ness. After cleaning up the bug guts on the floor (and my foot, yuck!), I sauntered into the bathroom to find a trail of Argentine ants on my toothbrush. Thank goodness the monster in the bedroom (not my husband, the cockroach) had me wide awake, or I might well have had a mouth full of ant-laced Colgate. That's what I get for not thoroughly cleaning my brush the night before. I hop in the shower and, hallelujah, saints be praised, an electric eel didn't slither out of the drain and wrap itself around my leg (can hardly get my ol' man to do that). After dressing for work (TGIF!), I go down stairs to the kitchen where the Folgers is ready and waiting, thanks to hubby, and sit down at the table with a cream-cheesed bagel. And you ain't goin't to believe this, as my granny would say. A fly starts buzzing my head. Yes, after the Loch Ness Monster and the ants from that South American country, a darn fly. That annoying buzzing sound drives me crazy. And why would a fly be circling my head anyway? I washed my hair, brushed my teeth (with a new toothbrush, I'll have you know), and I have an IQ of 140. Anyway, I grab a newspaper, roll it up and start beating the heck out of everything in my kitchen until I kill the dirty, buzzing little booger. I glance at the window over the sink, see my reflection, and freak. My hair looks like somebody thought it might taste good in a frozen margarita and threw it in the blender. I guess I went a little overboard in my mission to kill the fly, but it's been an insectually(is that a word?) baaaad morning (TGIF!)---Darn! I just looked at the calendar!

Freaked Out Lady found out the hard way that American cockroaches and Smoky Brown cockroaches are very prevalent indoors in the fall and winter months. You Do It Pest Control carries a whole host of effective residual sprays to control these roaches such as: Onslaught, Demon WP, Suspend SC, Crack & Crevice I, and Crack & Crevice II. Good baits to use include: Advion, Advance, Maxforce, and Vendetta. Dusts such as and Drione and Delta dust work well in the hard-to-get-to places such as wall voids, plumbing voids and certain cracks and crevices.

Those pesky Argentine ants can be controlled with MaxForce ant bait and Advance Dual Choice ant stations. Effective residual sprays include CyKick CS, and for the outside Tempo Ultra SC. Delta dust applied with a bellows hand duster is excellent for wall and plumbing voids.

That pesky fly could have been dealt with much less spent energy. Gold Stick Fly Traps and MaxForce Fly Spot Bait are very effective and CB-80 works very well for a quick kill. Before you experience a morning like the Freaked Out Lady visit http://www.youdoitpestcontrol.com/ and treat your home before you have a pest problem.

Freaked Out Lady (For Bugzilla) out--

Rats

It's winter time. The time of year when rats head inside in search of warmth. Home and business owners across the country will soon hear strange scratchings in the walls or attic. Rats have been responsible for the spread of many diseases to people and domestic animals. History is replete with rat-borne epidemics. Nowadays, due to sanitation, effective drugs, and effective rodent and insect control programs, the disease threat from rodents is not as significant as it once was. Although the threat of disease from rats has diminished over time, there are still cases of human and animal diseases being transmitted by these creatures. Especially in cities where rats live in close proximity to people. Diseases spread by rats include: Plague (known as Black Death in Europe where 25 million people died during a 14th century epidemic), Murine typhus, Rat-bite fever, Salmonellosis, and leptospirosis. Plague is rarely seen in commensal (sharing peoples' food and habitat) rodents, but is still seen in some native rodents in the western United States. There are numerous ways to control rats in and around structures; Rodent baits such as Contrac, Final, or Fastrac bait blocks in secured bait stations such as Aegis or Protecta placed under and around the structure work well. Glueboards and snaptraps strategically placed on the interior and attic will do the trick as well. For a full catalog of rodent control products please visit http://www.youdoitpestcontrol.com/