Wee Fly Babies: story #2
Mar. 14th, 2004 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanSo about those maggots.
I used to go to pagan festivals a lot. On this one occasion I was packing up to go to a pagan festival with my boyfiend of the time - let's call him L. I had a big storage closet where all my camping gear was kept and after digging my tent and sleeping bags out of storage, for whatever reason I decided to toss my partially-filled bag of garbage in there for safe keeping.
I figure I must have had a good reason at the time. I know I had mice, maybe I thought I would be less likely to find it all over the apartment when I returned. I do know that I couldn't put it outside because the neighbourhood is full of very aggressive and well-fed racoons, it wouldn't have lasted a day. Anyway, we were only going to be away for about five days so I didn't worry about it.
Got real hot that week.
Y'all can tell where this is going, right?
Anyway, back from the festival five days later, I opened the storage closet, pulled out the bag -- thinking to myself "That's gotten kind of nasty, must remember to double-bag that in the morning" -- tossed my camping gear inside and went to bed.
Morning comes. I wake up to a full bladder and sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. I pad to the bathroom and then to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. I'm walking back into the bedroom to grab a dressing gown, and as I walk into the room L is reaching out and picking up his jeans from where he tossed them on the floor the previous night.
I would never have spotted it in lower lighting, but with the bright sunlight turning everything into technicolour, I could swear I saw something dropping to the floor as he picked up his clothes.
"What's that on your clothes?" I asked, and we both squinted at the floor.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
We both simultaneously jumped up onto the bed.
It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. The night before I had disturbed what had been a pretty healthy colony and they had gone searching for more peaceful digs. When the hot sun started coming in the window in the morning, they all headed for shade.
I gingerly picked up my t-shirt from where it had been lying and gave it a gentle shake. Yep. Covered.
Then we looked under the bed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
I was really lucky that I had hardwood floors. And that it was a bright warm day. I did a daring leap from the bed and ran over to the dresser to get some clean non-infested clothes. L managed to pull something out of his laundry bag. The rest of the clothes got scooped into a bag and tossed directly into the clothes washer.
The next step after quadruple-bagging the garbage and was to run out to the store and buy massive quantities of cleaners and disinfectants. L flat out refused to help me so I dropped him and his camping gear off at his apartment, hit the store and then bombed back home.
There's this intersection, see. And I turned left on it every single time I drove along that street. But I don't drive every day, so I didn't notice that they had put up a "no left hand turns" sign since last time. Apparently a lot of people didn't notice, because there was a policeman sitting around the corner pulling people over one by one. He pulled me over.
I looked at him, said, "I am having a really really crappy day. My apartment is full of maggots." and burst into tears.
He wrote me a ticket.
I went home. I moved every single piece of furniture in my entire apartment. I swept and scrubbed every inch of the floor. It took me the entire day.
I bought a fly-swatter. I killed every fly I saw and tried not to think about where it might have come from.
And I paid that fucking ticket.
I used to go to pagan festivals a lot. On this one occasion I was packing up to go to a pagan festival with my boyfiend of the time - let's call him L. I had a big storage closet where all my camping gear was kept and after digging my tent and sleeping bags out of storage, for whatever reason I decided to toss my partially-filled bag of garbage in there for safe keeping.
I figure I must have had a good reason at the time. I know I had mice, maybe I thought I would be less likely to find it all over the apartment when I returned. I do know that I couldn't put it outside because the neighbourhood is full of very aggressive and well-fed racoons, it wouldn't have lasted a day. Anyway, we were only going to be away for about five days so I didn't worry about it.
Got real hot that week.
Y'all can tell where this is going, right?
Anyway, back from the festival five days later, I opened the storage closet, pulled out the bag -- thinking to myself "That's gotten kind of nasty, must remember to double-bag that in the morning" -- tossed my camping gear inside and went to bed.
Morning comes. I wake up to a full bladder and sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. I pad to the bathroom and then to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. I'm walking back into the bedroom to grab a dressing gown, and as I walk into the room L is reaching out and picking up his jeans from where he tossed them on the floor the previous night.
I would never have spotted it in lower lighting, but with the bright sunlight turning everything into technicolour, I could swear I saw something dropping to the floor as he picked up his clothes.
"What's that on your clothes?" I asked, and we both squinted at the floor.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
We both simultaneously jumped up onto the bed.
It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. The night before I had disturbed what had been a pretty healthy colony and they had gone searching for more peaceful digs. When the hot sun started coming in the window in the morning, they all headed for shade.
I gingerly picked up my t-shirt from where it had been lying and gave it a gentle shake. Yep. Covered.
Then we looked under the bed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
I was really lucky that I had hardwood floors. And that it was a bright warm day. I did a daring leap from the bed and ran over to the dresser to get some clean non-infested clothes. L managed to pull something out of his laundry bag. The rest of the clothes got scooped into a bag and tossed directly into the clothes washer.
The next step after quadruple-bagging the garbage and was to run out to the store and buy massive quantities of cleaners and disinfectants. L flat out refused to help me so I dropped him and his camping gear off at his apartment, hit the store and then bombed back home.
There's this intersection, see. And I turned left on it every single time I drove along that street. But I don't drive every day, so I didn't notice that they had put up a "no left hand turns" sign since last time. Apparently a lot of people didn't notice, because there was a policeman sitting around the corner pulling people over one by one. He pulled me over.
I looked at him, said, "I am having a really really crappy day. My apartment is full of maggots." and burst into tears.
He wrote me a ticket.
I went home. I moved every single piece of furniture in my entire apartment. I swept and scrubbed every inch of the floor. It took me the entire day.
I bought a fly-swatter. I killed every fly I saw and tried not to think about where it might have come from.
And I paid that fucking ticket.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 12:59 pm (UTC)You have just inspired me to go and clean everything older than 5 days out of my fridge.
Just in case.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 01:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 01:54 pm (UTC)I still shiver every once in awhile just THINKING of that story.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 03:05 pm (UTC)The other story just might be a bit worse for me due to the "it's raining maggots" effect.
I suppose I should tell you that one of my biggest ever fears is maggots. I demand to be cremated when I die (and have said so since I was small) due to maggots.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 03:47 pm (UTC)I am reminded of the tiny flat I stayed in for a while, one very hot summer. My folks gave me an old couch, & due to their cats, it came with fleas included. There were no cats in my flat. I basically lived there in exchange for cleaning duties, as it belonged to a friend who lived in London.
I NOMINALLY shared it with Mr Gay Leather UK, but he rarely came home.
I spent most of my nights with
The fleas increased in number in the hot weather. They got hungry.
One very hot night, midsummer to be precise, a few days after the couch had been moved in, when I hadn't spent a night there since then, I came home late from the club by myself, & started to take off my things & get ready for bed. I removed my boots & socks.
My bare feet hit the carpet. I felt something on my leg.
I looked down, & the cat-fleas were LITERALLY all over my feet & ankles & heading upwards.
I leapt on a chair, semi-clad, yelling & picking them off, & from that position, I called a taxi, grabbed some clothes, took a flying leap at the door & went right back to Cav's place.
The landlady drove my friend crazy, so when we left, we left the couch, too, & the hungry inhabitants. The rest of my stuff got blasted with flea-spray.
flea-covered
Date: 2004-03-14 06:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-14 06:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-15 05:02 pm (UTC)Apparently there was a praying mantis eggsack on one to the twigs that held the teepee up, and it, of course, hatched in my room. When I went to finally move it, all these itty bitty bugs scurried out of the teepee. I immediatly set it down on the shelf it was on and ran down the stairs in a itchy-scratchy panic. One of my folks came up and just threw the whole thing out the window before inspecting everything (by request) in my room for more creepies.
Still, I slept on the couch for almost a month afterward.