The walls are silent now. The chewing has stopped.

[elfs]

This morning I called Progressive Pest Control and spoke to Johann, a man who sounded an awful lot like Stuart McLean at The Vinyl Cafe, "The world's smallest record store": wry, easygoing, funny, and competent. He had that slow, sure way of speaking that seems to come with all the Scandanavians around northern Seattle, and sure enough he was pale and blond and weatherbeaten.

He listened for fifteen seconds and say, "Oh, yeah, those are yellowjackets. I love a good yellowjacket season, it's what pays the bills. I'll get the bee suit on." I watched him suit up and prep the poison. "Kids love the bee suit. They think I have the coolest job in the world. Like being an astronaut." He glanced over at the hole in the wall that housed the nest. "If I move slow, they won't even notice me."

Omaha and I watched from a respectful distance. The yellowjackets noticed him, but none of them got into his suit, and with a thin, rigid hose attached to a rubber canister, he injected a dusty extract of peppermint that smelled just like a pest control chemical but is apparently the very thing that all flying insects can't stand-- it blinds, clogs, and kills them.

Anyway, Johann charged me a hundred bucks for the service, which seems eminently reasonable given the hazards. He said, "Well, if they come back, yell at me. Or just ask nicely. I'll come back either way and make sure it gets done." I just wanted to give him a good review because he deserved it-- he's an independent who lives in the area and does what it takes, not the stock "whatever the big boys do" approach, so he knows what to do. When I paid him, he gave me an invoice and said, "I've got the world's smallest business-- one man. That's as small as it can get, right?" Maybe he knows he sounds like McLean.

Comments

[stephaniesmom.livejournal.com]

Wow, I like hiring guys like that. I try to go out of my way to do so, makes me happy to support small business, and when they do a worthy job, makes me even happier.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Peppermint-based insect sprays are wonderful! They work well, and leave a fresh-minty smell!

We recently had pest-management out to see us. We've been having a carpenter-ant problem for years now. This year, which has been super-rainy, has been worse than others. Well, the exterminators found them. They were in a section of the attic insulation. No wood damage, thankfully!

Before they found that, while spraying outside, they found a yellowjacket nest under a brick that had slid off of a wall and onto the dirt. So, one of the guys got into his bee suit, and started spraying. He was having trouble subduing them, when I asked, "Do you have to get that on them, or just into the air." Turns out it needed to contact the yellowjackets. "Wait a sec.," I said, running off to get my mint-based wasp & hornet killer.

I stood well-back and shot a stream at the wall. The yellowjackets in the air fled. When the exterminator wandered over, he found that those on the ground, in the nest, were dying due to the spray that had hit there. He didn't need to do anything more.

We've been known to put small plastic lids with peppermint oil in them into the attic or other spaces where we want to kill off flying insects. Works very well.

[ben-raccoon.livejournal.com]

That's.. pretty cool!

It's always satisfying getting those small-business folks who really know what they're doing. Pretty rare nowadays, too.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I wonder if peppermint oil will work on the sugar ants that infested my kitchen a couple of days ago.