Thanksgiving Eve 2010

Instead of baking the pies for tomorrow, I am cowering in my sewing room...I cannot believe that I am admitting to this, but we have a pest problem.



A few weeks ago or so, we had a guy come out to take care of a couple of squirrels we could hear in the attic. It sounded as though they were bowling or something up there. Anywho...the guy came, set some contraptions, plugged the vents and off he went. The next day, I came home from work and my mom told me that a squirrel had been in the fireplace and would look at her and then disappear - and then repeat the process. I told The Husb and when he came home from work, he checked it out, didn't see the squirrel, but he noticed the damper was open so he closed it.


A few days later, we had such a fly problem. I think I easily killed over twenty flies a day for about three or four days in a row. We couldn't figure out where they were entering the house, but I noticed that they seemed a little weak and dizzy - I would even find some dead ones - which brought the body count up significantly. The first place I looked for rotting food was under The Kid's bed, because he had been home recently, and well...he's a slob with the food and the leftovers. Anyway, to my surprise, under the bed and his whole room was free of food debris.


Then, there were no more flies....

Until today. We must have killed twelve since The Husb came home from work tonight. Then, The Kid looked up as we were having dinner, and I swear to God, there were twenty flies on the ceiling in the kitchen. We looked in the den, same thing. There were some in the hall ceilings too. The Husb then had the big idea to check the fireplace, and when he opened the glass door, a fly flew out.


Oh yes...I said a fly.


Then I said, "Dude, could there be a dead squirrel on the other side of the damper?"


He said, "No, there would have to be one in the fireplace."


I said, "But when you closed the damper, you said it was gone."

He said, "No, I said I didn't see him...I carefully opened the glass doors in case he was still in there so he wouldn't jump out into the house."  (OK...let that one sink in.  He closed the damper, but was worried that there might have been a squirrel in there that could have jumped out into the house; so, he took care to open the glass doors very carefully. Hmmm.....Where would said squirrel have to be if the damper was now closed and he couldn't jump out into the house?)

I said, "Could there be a dead squirrel in the fireplace?"

Then he said, "Yes, I saw a furry tail."

There is a dead squirrel in my fireplace full of maggots and surrounded by hatched flies. 

Oh yes...I am in my sewing room with my momma, while The Husb and The Kid have a wonderful, holiday bonding experience while disposing of a dead squirrel.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that I am not the person who is disposing of said squirrel.  I wish you and yours a less dramatic holiday, but certainly all the best in the world.

MK out.