Unwelcome Eight-legged Guests

I recently spent two weeks with my family up at the lake. It was, as usual, marvelous family time. :) If I had one complaint, it would be the endless number of spiders that one couldn't help but notice walking along the water. And these weren't your flimsy spiders either. No, these were substantial nickel to quarter size spiders. Now, while I tolerated their presence, I was also looking forward to returning to my spider-free apartment. I had worked hard to keep my apartment free of such pests by regularly spraying a rather heavy duty repellent all over my deck, door frames, deck screen, and the screens to the windows I regularly opened.

So imagine my severe disappointment on Sunday afternoon when I return home and find a few eight-legged guests awaiting my arrival. I couldn't figure out how they found their way inside in two short weeks when a longer absence earlier in the summer left no such results. Over the next several days I dutifully killed an eight-legged being whenever it crossed my path. The fly swatter or a flip flop were never far away. Then today I had a little hint as to how the creatures were finding their way into a new 'home'. As it so happens, the window in my office is rather stubborn and sticky. In fact, it is INCREDIBLY stubborn and sticky. I sprayed it with bug repellent last year, but it then took me nearly a half hour and a hammer to actually close the window. So this year I decided to leave it closed and forgo spraying the screen with bug repellent. Apparently at some point before I left, I had opened the window and then thought I closed it completely and locked it. Well, the lock did not fully catch and the top half of the window slid down ever so slightly thus giving the critters a way in.

Today I yanked that window up and securely locked it in place. And then I began to vacuum. I took the vacuum hose and attachment and vacuumed against the baseboards. I vacuumed up the corners where two walls met. I vacuumed the corners of the ceiling. I vacuumed the corners where the ceiling met the wall. And I did that in every room. And then I vacuumed the floors. And then I swiffered the hard floors. And then I moped the wet floors. And then I was happy.

One other noteworthy moment. Today I spotted a rather sizable spider hanging out on the wall behind my kitchen table. I caught a glance of it out of the corner of my eye and, I'll be honest, I was slightly startled. So I quickly grabbed the fly swatter and sent up a quick prayer "Lord, please help me kill him quickly with one slap and find him afterwards". Swat. Plop. Trash. My prayer was answered. :) Unfortunately he did land on the table cloth. It's now in the laundry basket. :)

So, things you should've learned...
1) I don't like spiders but can kill them when the situation demands it.
2) Spraying spider repellent is effective... as long as you close windows where it was not used.

The end. :)