darkoshi: (Default)
Darkoshi ([personal profile] darkoshi) wrote2016-03-18 11:50 am

the cruelty of it all

The person I hired to reseal the sunroom roof has finally finished the job, this morning. He came down with the flu in the middle of it, so I don't fault him too much for the delay this time. (Though I do still fault him on not getting back in touch with me last year when he was supposed to do it the first time.)

Something I wasn't expecting to see, upon getting out the ladder to take a quick look at the roof, was a lot of insects stuck and struggling to free themselves from the still-tacky silicone coating. Ten or so stuck insects in the section near the edge where I was looking, and likely many more across the rest of the surface.

I tried to help a few of them get free. But even after being freed from the surface, they still had the sticky stuff on them. My efforts may have made it even worse for them. The first one might have survived; it disappeared after cleaning its legs for a while, so I'm not sure. The 2nd one died. Apparently nail polish remover, even the natural kind made from maize, is toxic to insects. I suppose the most humane thing to do is to leave them stuck to die that way, rather than being partially squashed, dismembered and/or poisoned. Or maybe a quick death by poison would be better. I don't know. I just don't know.

Does this mean I wouldn't ever have a roof resealed like that again? No, I probably would do it again, if it needed to be done. But it pains me. Does anyone understand how I feel? Does anyone else comprehend feeling empathy for insects? When they don't even feel it for pigs or fish or chickens or cows?

I was going to drive back in to the office to work the rest of the day there, but now I've spent so much time on this, I'd better work from home.
marahmarie: (M In M Forever) (Default)

[personal profile] marahmarie 2016-03-22 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
With the ants, first I would try to find out how they are getting into the house.

Through cracks above wood beams that run along the tops of the walls. The cracks they're getting in through are in outside-facing walls. Established that sometime last week when this problem started (or resumed; I can't know which simply because this is a rental but the landlord mentioned nothing about an ant problem).

Then caulk the area so they can't get in that way anymore.

Started caulking the day before I wrote the comment above but I ran out of matching caulk, as I had to jump with it from a dark wood beam straight onto a white wall. Need more caulk.

[..] I scoop up stragglers one by one or two at a time on a small sheet of paper and shake it off outside

Hadn't thought of that. Good idea. Except I've got to take the paper downstairs or else open the bedroom window prior and just shake it straight outside from there.

[..] with clear syrupy liquid

Which, according to the googling I did, initially attracts more ants because it's a bait, then kills the whole colony. Which, eh. I'm actually preserving more of their lives in the long run by just killing them as they come in (or, even better, small-sheet-of-papering them out the nearest window as you suggested), as long as the amount of them I see is limited once my caulking gets done.

Thanks for letting me pick your brain for a minute (I kind of admire the DIY work you do, not to mention your depth of feeling for living things, which was why I asked)... :)
Edited 2016-03-22 03:40 (UTC)
marahmarie: (M In M Forever) (Default)

[personal profile] marahmarie 2016-03-22 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah... *mulls over the physics involved* the thing is, they're so tiny (think a spec of dust or smaller even than the tiniest flea) that they might be wind-resistant enough to remain on the paper after it's thrown out the window! But there's a bottom-story roof not too far below they could land on, or alternatively, that the paper could land on with them on it, if need be.