ROBUST discussion
Rants: OT & OTT
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Something's really bugging me...literally
There has to be a source. Fruit flies breed in, well, fruit or something like that. There are fly strips - tried them?
I have no idea where I'd hang a fly strip. You'd probably have to see the room to understand why it wouldn't work. Besides, I really don't see them anywhere but around my computer.I went grocery shopping tonight and saw fruit flies hovering over some peaches. The bugs in my house don't look the same, so now I have no clue what they are.
A friend told me they'll go away with the first freeze. I guess he doesn't realize my living room is inside a heated house.
While poking around on Amazon tonight, I think I found what's bugging me: fungus gnats (they live in potted plants; I have eight potted plants in my living room -- three of them quite large). Ordered a couple products that promise to get rid of them. One is based on the sticky idea you had, Kat, but it doesn't have to hang from anything; it's pushed into the dirt. The other is something that's sprinkled on the dirt.
I used to have a scad of potted plants. I always had some kind of bug. Which is probably why I don't have so many plants any more. It's a trade off - the serenity of the plants, or the nasty bugs that go with them.
At least you know what to do now. That always keeps me from going crazy.
I watched a video last night that suggested putting out containers of wine -- just small things, like a little wine poured into a baby food jar. It didn't mention putting plastic on top like the other info I read, and it said nothing about mixing it with sugar. I noticed the person in the video used red wine; I had used white wine in my failed effort. I stuck the containers into three of my plants. One trapped nothing, but together two plants trapped a total of three critters. The gnats are supposedly attracted to the fermenting smell, dive in, and drown.It'd be hard for me to give up my plants. My rooms are small, there's hardly any furniture, but lots of plants in every room. This is only the second time in decades that I've been bothered by bugs. The other time was in the '90s when my oldest and most-loved plant got those itty-bitty white critters that latch onto the bottom of the leaf. That plant was really a tree. Broke my heart to send it to the plant graveyard.
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If your cat has a taste for gnats, may I borrow him (her?)? The wine is continuing to trap some of the critters. Saw only two flying by my computer today.I also kept thinking about Kat's post about choosing between having no bugs and having plants. I decided to compromise. I kept most of my plants, but did dump two of them today. Then just to be obstinate, I kept the one that I think is the source of the problem: my newest palm. It's huge. I need it to fill the room because I gave away the furniture that sat where the plant now sits.
I still have a Hawaiian tea plant I bought in the 1970's. I've also got a potted begonia that I bring inside in the fall.I no longer have an indoor jungle. LOL
Off to Google "Hawaiian tea plant"...
It was a little log you stuck in the dirt. They were everywhere, made a nice looking plant.Mine are most notable because they are 40 years old.
They came out shortly after 'Pet Rocks'.
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Actually not. Our cats are kept inside at night, so they can't kill 250 small animals a month, each. The black one takes it out on spiders, flies and suchlike. They grey one is too fat from a gourmet diet to jump even one inch. Half a dozen or more cats in the stables, a hedgehog family and some foxes live a royal life on the leavings of these two privileged cats.
I'm a lot like Andre's grey cat.I had a Pet Rock but it died.
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LOL!
In Japan, where the souls of ancestors reside in rocks, that would be no laughing matter but instead a serious crime...
Hey, I said it died. I didn't say I killed it.
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With respect to bugs, might I suggest moving someplace colder? Very few bugs 'round these parts.With respect to rocks, we find they thrive when held by small hands and gleefully chucked into a stream bed.
Patricia, I find it hard to believe any harm could come to a rock under your care. I suspect a conspiracy.
I'm sure the rock was murdered.The butler did it, with a candlestick in the library.
I'll stand as a character witness!
(Y'all are characters, I witness that every day. LOL)
Kat, you clearly underestimate Miss Scarlet. A sneaky dame, that one.Sjm, maybe I should just send my plant to Canada. I'm too lazy to get out of my chair.
I don't miss my pet rock much. He was stoned most of the time.
Silliness. I will buy you a new plant and take good care of it. I don't want to risk a foreign infestation of bugs. No offense meant to your kind of bug.
Rock - stoned - tee hee.
Some bug killer stuff arrived from Amazon today. Speaking of silliness, one of the items fits that description. Yellow sticky traps. Directions: shake the plant. That's supposed to get the bugs flying, and they'll be attracted to the yellow color, then fly into a loop of it and get stuck. I'll bet I'll catch half a bug that way. The other item is an insecticide that sounded benign when I read about it on Amazon, but the package info warns against, basically, coming anywhere near it. I used it anyway.But I'm seriously considering giving up on the gorgeous plant and replacing it with one direct from Canada.
I can get you something really pretty AND medicinal if you like. What? I was talking about ALOE people. ALOE. Not native to these parts, but growing really well in a pot in my home. I would happily break off a piece to send to you. It's *almost* impossible to kill.
I've got Aloe! Wonderful plant! Never needs any attention.I tried growing catnip in my house once, but the dogs ate it.
Did you know that eating catnip will get a dog stoned?
I guess I have rock-hounds.
I keep Aloe in the kitchen for burns.I need a plant that's about six-feet tall. The current one will get about four or five days to shape up before I give it to the trash collector. Here's hoping the death potion from Amazon works.
I could send my husband, Sierra - he's 6'4" and feeds himself - but I'd need him back eventually. There are many places in my house that I can not reach without his help.Have you tried a ficus - 'Benjamina' or 'Monique', if I am remembering correctly. Also, very difficult to kill and tallish.
Kat - 'rock hounds' - more silliness! I would like to see video of your stoned dog. Figure you'll ever feed him/her catnip again?
I need a palm plant. It just "fits" the decor and fans out to fill the space.But do send your hubby. I'll send you a ladder so I don't have to send him back.
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(Y'all are characters, I witness that every day. LOL)"
Hee-hee.
I don't understand why writers whine that they have no plots. Just read this thread: we've manufactured a baffling international conspiracy (Japanese are good) out of a few small bugs, a dead rock and a good does of paranoia, with a sprinkling of humor, and very likely, if we handle it right, we can steal the game's characters for instant face recognition and claim it was for satirical purposes. And it's a cozy, no less, a good solid genre niche.
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I need a plant that's about six-feet tall."
Aloe is just a generic name for thorny plants. Some subspecies grow bigger than a small room. One, called a "turksvei" where I come from grow prickley pears, which taste something like kiwifruit. All, as far as I know, have thorns.
My wife swears by aloe. She drinks it. All the soap in my bathroom is aloe-based.
The only aloe plants I've seen are in small pots. I need to expand my horizons.What does aloe taste like?
I never wine about a lack of plot - at least not in my own work. I'm a plotter at heart.
Andre Jute wrote: "Patricia wrote: "I keep Aloe in the kitchen for burns.I need a plant that's about six-feet tall."
Aloe is just a generic name for thorny plants. Some subspecies grow bigger than a small room. On..."
Andre, where would one get aloe to drink? Health food store?
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The epitome of bitter.
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Aloe, to drink, would have to be hugely diluted. It truly is very bitter indeed.
Amazon has a bunch of listings for Aloe juice. It scares me.
Aloe Vera grows as a 'weed' in Australia. It has escaped from people's gardens.
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I wouldn't drink the juice - that sounds just nasty.I love the stuff for burns, sun-burn and road-rash.
From Wiki:Literature
In Joyce's Ulysses, rhododendrons play an important role in Leopold and Molly's early courtship: Molly remembers them in her soliloquy - "the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me".
____
I had to look up rhododendrons to see what they look like. Now I know they're beautiful and colorful, but I would have guessed they're plain ol' green. I get an F in this class.
Since getting a stove, I've also realized how little I know about produce. Many items look interesting but sometimes I have no idea what they are -- and more often I have no idea how to cook them. Today I went to one of those pippy-poo grocery stores that stock every food on earth (except the purple rice I went there to buy). It was like entering an exotic land, full of scents and color and mystery. Very appealing displays. Their marketing gurus were so effective, I was tempted to buy everything in sight. Instead, I got myself out of there ASAP empty-handed.
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Nooo. There really is purple rice and black rice. I thought I'd start with the purple. My doctor told me about it; just discovered that Amazon sells it.Delivered today: rice cooker and organic brown rice (from Amazon). Made it. Turned out perfectly. Very cheap rice cooker (I think it was about $15, or maybe $20; great size for one person).
I LOVE my rice cooker. The first one, family sized, didn't work for small batches.Some rice cookers will also steam vegetables.
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Delivered today: rice cooker and organic br..."
In a frypan (I use an electric frypan kept only for this purpose but you can do it on top of the stove) nut some brown rice in olive oil. Remove. Stirfry vegetables (spring onions, grated carrot, leek, other onions, mange tout, whatever you have)f lightly in oil with herbs, no seasoning, half to one crumbled stock cube, some crushed garlic. Remove. Return rice to pan, add enough water not quite to cover (you can always add a little at a time later, until you get the hang of it), bring to boil, simmer for 40m. Five minute before you serve, throw on top of rice (no liquid visible now, heat right down to lowest setting) the stirfried veg, a cup of frozen petit pois, and smoked haddock (or other smoked fish) chopped into large bites. When the fish is cooked, serve out of the pan. Not served with bread or salad or anything else. Hungry people take seconds and thirds.
Now, the proper recipe for this serves the ricee slightly sloppy into bowls. I don't. I serve this with the rice almost dry, crunchy, the veg al dente, almost raw, and on a plate to eat with a fork rather than with a spoon.
I've made variants with smoked fowl, nice enough, and sausage, but my family likes the smoked fish one best, and definitely prefer the smoked sausage in a tomato sauce with pasta.
Andre Jute wrote: "Patricia wrote: "Nooo. There really is purple rice and black rice. I thought I'd start with the purple. My doctor told me about it; just discovered that Amazon sells it.Delivered today: rice cook..."
Oh, yum, Andre, thanks for this!
Our rice cooker is called a microwave oven. Still think it's the easiest and best way to cook rice. lol.
Great. Now I'm craving rice. (I should probably add that I am on a cleanse and really can't eat very much of anything, except I'm afraid you will all taunt me further.)
My idea of a cleanse was to quit drinking, smoking and chasing sleezy musicians. LOL It sounds like yours is a diet. Can't be much easier.
Books mentioned in this topic
101 Uses for a Dead Cat (other topics)Treespeaker (other topics)
Colour: For Professional Communicators (other topics)
I'd tell you that they also sometimes try to fly up my nose, but you'd probably laugh, so I'll leave that out of this post.
Does anyone know how to get rid of these things? They look like fruit flies, if I recall correctly what fruit flies look like. Very small. I saw one in my kitchen, but that was it. Just one. The living room, just where my computer is, seems to be the habitat -- though they could be attracted by the computer and flying there from elsewhere.
I Googled to look for a solution. One was to put sugar in some wine, cover it with plastic, poke some holes in the plastic and you'll trap them. I did that, caught one then no more. I also tried another suggested trap: vinegar and hand soap covered with plastic like the wine mixture, but it caught nothing.
Ortho makes a product (Home Defense) you can spray indoors. Tried that; no effect.
I thought maybe I'd brought the critters in on a palm plant I added to my living room recently, so sprayed the Ortho stuff there, too, in the dirt. No help.
There were a couple of other suggestions I haven't tried. One was to put the computer in a plastic bag, but that one doesn't make much sense to me -- and the other was get the computer opened and cleaned. I might do that; don't know yet, but I did use a vacuum attachment on the computer hoping to clean it. No help.
I'm open for suggestions 24/7. But I'm keeping my nose plugged.