We can hear the vacuum as we approach the dwelling, but as we enter the natural habitat of the house wife, it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary cleaning task. On closer in inspection we can see that her aim is not simply to clean the floor, she has a more sinister, deadly goal in mind.
The brush attachment for the vacuum is missing and the sucking machine is not merely aimed at the floors but also the walls, ceiling and every corner, nook or cranny she can find. In her eye is the glint of a challenge. She will find her prey and dispatch it swiftly up the sucking tube, every last one of them.
She is not hunting dust, oh no, dust is the least of her problems.
She is on a mission.
A mission to rid her domain of this autumn pest. A monster who invades her home by the hundreds. Who crawls up walls and into cupboards. Who drops from the ceiling into your bed in the middle of the night without warning.
The stinking, many legged millipede!
(image from Mick E Talbot via flickr)
It is the same every year.
Every year she taps out a desperate, somewhat demented blog post about these nasty little beasts. Every year she scours the interwebs looking for an answer, a hint, a clue on how to stop this black plague entering her house. Every year she comes up empty handed and heads back to the twice daily hunt, vacuum in hand, glint in her eye.
Yuk! We regularly vacuum the ceilings to get rid of the Daddy-long-legs that are everywhere, but at least they don’t drop down! We only get a couple of little millipedes, must be the weather. Good luck!
lol, luckily I’ve never had a millipede problem, but if I do, I’ll remember the vacuum trick :)
They are saying they are Portuguese millipedes and are in huge proportions because of the storms we had here!!!!
They are EVERYWHERE!!!!
ewwwwww……..
At least you did not just fork out $270 in the attempt to tame a plague of tiny brown coastal ants. I am sure that underneath our entire house and garden is THE ant colony headquarters of the entire world *sigh*
I now have the Hunter theme song in my head from the old ABC program!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDJxKky6iA8
Good luck with the pesky mites.
hehehehe funny blog post, but god they sound revolting.
For what it’s worth. I heard a woman on the radio yesterday say that the way to discourage them was to mix up Dettol and spray it around the house. She said they hate it.
Did you know that it’s hydrogen cyanide that oozes from them? Don’t get it in your eyes apparently!
I’m mostly leaving ours alone, or brushing them into my hand and flushing. I’d be worried they’d just be alive and breeding in the vacuum!