I squealed. It’s not something that I’m proud of, but I did it.
What in the world happened?
The night before, I washed a load of towels. Since it was late and I was tired, I decided to put them up the next day. The next morning, I politely skipped into the laundry room. When I bent down and picked up the clothes basket, I saw movement inside of it. Lots of movement.
That’s when I squealed and dropped the clothes basket.
Some of you are probably thinking it was full of spiders. If that was the case, I would’ve knocked the door off of its hinges to get out of that room.
Fortunately, they weren’t spiders. Instead, the basket was teeming with little bugs. I couldn’t believe it. It was as if I had stepped into an episode from The Twilight Zone.
No, I’m not squeamish about bugs. Most tomboys aren’t, even when they reach my age. That being said, I don’t want them anywhere in my house. There are only two places I want to see bugs: on the ground or at the end of a fishing hook.
Apparently, my husband hadn’t heard me squeal, so I yelled, “TIM!!”
He came running, “What’s wrong?”
I pointed to my buggy basket.
“Whoa!” That was his version of squealing. He bent down said, “Termites.”
My heart sank. Anything but termites. I prayed Tim was wrong.
He traced them to a window and I was more horrified. I had never seen so many bugs at one time and in one place. It was like the bugs were in a giant conga line as they came in through the window.
We needed to put an abrupt stop to their party and we needed to do it quickly. So, we bought some bug spray and Tim sprayed around the house. While it did kill most of them, I knew more would be coming.
Then I reached out for expert help: a pest control company. The very nice man who came out confirmed Tim. “You all have termites. In fact, they’re swarming right now.”
That explained why there were so many of them.
Tim showed the pest control man where he had sprayed. “Look at all the dead bugs.” The pest man answered, “Yeah, but you made the others run and who knows where they went to.”
I imaged the conga line of bib-wearing bugs dancing though the woodwork of our house.
The pest control man checked our house and only found them in one place. Apparently, they had just gotten into our house. We found them in the nick of time.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV)
Always pay attention to what is going on around you and I’m not just talking about bugs or termites. Infestation can happen quicker than you realize and you can be in over your head.
Within days, they started the termite treatment and we haven’t seen any more of them. Thank goodness. The only parties I want in my house consist of chocolate, Diet Dr. Pepper and good friends who don’t ingest wood.