[Oabs] Something that bugs me.

Tue Jun 3 02:58:37 UTC 2014

Hi, Kaiti and all.
That's exactly my issue. I can hear a bug, and I can usually tell what it 
is. (Cheers for having perfect pitch, although it's not really needed in 
situations like these; common sense is most handy.) Wasps usually buzz in 
second octave, flies are in third and low fourth octave, and mosquitos are 
in high fourth in low fifth octave. Stinkbugs make this weird crackling 
sound which no one else in my family really hears. You're right, Kaiti; by 
the time I either go get one of my parents or move to grab a tissue, my prey 
usually manages to move, which is dangerous for me if it's a wasp with a 
stinger. Even my dad, who is fully sighted, was complaining today how when 
he goes to get the fly swatter, the fly disappears from view. Historically, 
none of the dogs we've had have been bug-eaters, although I would always 
take my German Shepherd downstairs to our musty basement with me, which 
tricked me into feeling safer.
I agree with what Darian says; screens on windows and clean houses are 
important. My house is over eighty years old, so no matter what I do, things 
manage to slip in through invisible cracks and crannies. Bugs are much less 
frequent at my school, though, even though Xavier is only twenty minutes 
away from my house.
Ah; the mouse traps. I don't know about you, but I've accidentally sprung a 
trap or two with my toe on the occasions when my mom would put them out but 
forget to tell me because I was at school or what have you. One of my fears 
is accidentally stepping on a trap with a mouse in it. I would probably go 
for snap traps rather than the glue traps, because the former kill the mice, 
from what I hear. I figure that would be safer if I was going to be the one 
to check the traps for mice, since bites from live, angry mice are very 
dangerous to anyone.
My parents and grandparents use what I like to call the electrical tennis 
racket of doom. It's this contraption shaped like a tennis racket, but when 
you press a button, the paddle-like part of it becomes electrically charged. 
The user can then hit bugs with it and basically electrocute them to death. 
It makes this creepy popping sound, but it does the trick. I'm just trying 
to think of ways to deal with unwanted critters -- particularly the 
untouchable ones with stingers -- when, say, no one is home and I want the 
sucker out of my room.
Excellent pun, by the way, Darian. Time flies when you're sending hate mail 
about bugs.

Emily
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kaiti Shelton via Oabs" <oabs at nfbnet.org>
To: "Darian" <dsmithnfb at gmail.com>; "Ohio Association of Blind Students 
list" <oabs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2014 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Oabs] Something that bugs me.

> Hi Emily and all,
>
> As someone who has similar bug issues, I can totally sympathize.  I
> have been very fortunate that bugs rarely if at all have gotten into
> my dorm room and apartment while I was living at college, but they are
> a little more common in Cincinnati when I'm home.  This is partially
> because we have an older house, and partially because the stink bugs
> are much worse down here than they are in Dayton for some odd reason.
> I have only seen one in my two years of schooling at UD, and that is a
> really interesting story.  My poor roommate lifted her pillow to put
> her cell phone under it (so she could wake up and physically feel her
> alarm in the morning since she didn't usually wake up to the noise),
> and found a stink bug sitting there.
>
> I think what Emily is saying more by her question is how to find the
> bugs and get them to go away or kill them.  I know from seeing her
> house, as well as from my own experiences, that bugs still manage to
> get in regardless of whether or not your windows and doors are
> screened in, and even when the house is clean.  Sometimes I find bugs
> in the weirdest places around my house.  For example, a few weeks ago
> I took my BrailleSense down to my basement to read, and after I had
> been sitting there alone for a few minutes I heard a stink bug
> buzzing.  Bear in mind that my basement has glass block windows which
> only serve to let in a little natural light, and it is otherwise
> completely underground.  There is an emergency door which goes out to
> the back yard, but no one uses it on a regular basis.  The family
> room, aside from the occasional laundr pile up, is kept pretty clean
> since it's where we watch movies and have friends hang out in.  The
> bug had to come in from upstairs, and there was no real reason for it
> to be down there.
>
> Like Emily though, I had no idea where the bug was.  I knew it was off
> to my left in a corner of the room, but I wound up going to get my
> younger brother like I usually do so he could find the bug.  It took a
> while for him to find it, and he almost thought I was just freaking
> out for no apparent reason because he couldn't see anything.  He found
> it sitting on the windowsill of the glass block window, so he thinks
> it was trying to get out.  He was able to get a tissue and use it to
> grab the bug so he could get rid of it.  I wondered how I would have
> located the bug and done the same, and what if the bug moved in the
> time I went to go get a tissue to grab it with?
>
> I will say that my cat used to be great at getting bugs, and sometimes
> my dogs even chase after flies.  However, I've found as my cat gets
> older she is more likely to ignore the bugs unless they fly close
> enough to her.  She doesn't chase after them nearly as much as she
> used to or bother to climb ontop of tables to try to jump for them.
> She used to love it when a moth would fly into our house and fly
> around the light fixture in our dining room, because it would become
> her play-thing to try to catch.  She'd climb onto the dining room
> table, follow the bug around with her eyes, and alternate between
> stalking around the table and trying to pounc for it, or jumping up
> into the air to try to catch it between her paws or with her teeth.
> Now she'll lay right under the light with the bug flying around, and
> only hiss at it and try to paw it when it gets in her way.  I think if
> you want to have a cat for an exterminator, you need to make sure you
> have one that will go after the bugs.
>
> For rats, I think mice traps are the best bet.  I know plenty of
> sighted people, including my parents, who have caught field mice by
> just putting out traps and waiting it out until the mouse gets caught
> in one.  My dad caught quite a few by putting traps in places which
> don't danger people living in the house, or inconvenience them.  For
> some reason mice really liked to hide behind our couches, so that was
> where he put the majority of his traps.  My dogs used to chase the
> mice and got a couple too when they were young enough to be fast, and
> a cat would also be a good mouse hunter.
>
> On 6/2/14, Darian via Oabs <oabs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Dear MS. Tim Brooke fellow (a.k.a. Emily)
>> As you and everyone else knows, I am not from Ohio, nor do I live there
>> (yet).
>> Anyway, this is a great topic I wanted to chime in if you will allow
>> I first think that it is important to come to understand that and insect
>> phobia is not at all uncommon. In fact, the phobia itself and the 
>> question
>> of how to deal with it is something that humans of every color, creed and
>> visual acuity face
>> So, my personal opinion is that the creation of insect screens (the stuff
>> you put on your windows and doors), mouse traps and bug zappers and 
>> varying
>> types of natural and chemical pesticides are in play when devising how 
>> one
>> counteracts ever so annoying invasion of pests.
>> I think the first thing that is highly important is to keep your 
>> residence
>> as clean as you can make it. Is make sure home more hospitable to humans
>> But less hospitable to the nonhumans
>>
>> I grew up in places where you had rats, aunts, and roaches (Yep I grew up 
>> in
>> the hood :-))
>> Learned from my mother that cleanliness fixes a good bit of the problem. 
>> She
>> is cited actually.  I also would tried to install screen on windows and
>> doors for the summer and try to understand that when the weather is hot, 
>> the
>> insects want in.
>> If you like cats and you live in a place where you can have one, they 
>> tend
>> to keep away the smaller critters
>>
>> Because I have a difficult time being able to tell
>> I think this is all I can think of at the moment (I totally love the pun 
>> in
>> the subject line).
>> I think I will "buzz "off now.
>>  Darian
>>
>>> On Jun 2, 2014, at 4:17 PM, Emily Pennington via Oabs <oabs at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi, everyone.
>>>
>>> With the summer season very much in evidence, I think it a very
>>> appropriate
>>> time for this post.
>>>
>>> Let me give a preface. I am a well-functioning, mostly happy college 
>>> kid.
>>> I
>>> can do laundry, and I am slowly but surely mastering the culinary arts.
>>> In
>>> short, I can't wait to live independently.
>>>
>>> However, I have always had one huge phobia which causes me to regress 
>>> into
>>> a
>>> helpless, quivering child: insects. I hate them all; even butterflies
>>> landing on me scare the crap out of me. I know that bugs have a very
>>> important place on this earth, and as long as they keep to themselves
>>> outside, I am completely fine with that. What freaks me out is when they
>>> appear in my house, on my desk, or worse, on my flesh. The hornet's nest
>>> incident of '07 - about which most of you have heard in great detail -
>>> has
>>> only increased my fear. The stinkbugs love my room in the winter, and 
>>> many
>>> a
>>> wasp turns up in our upstairs bathroom during the summer. I hate them, 
>>> and
>>> I
>>> feel helpless when they're around. How do I kill something that I can't
>>> find, let alone something with a painful stinger? My paralyzing fear of
>>> bugs
>>> also leads me to worry about what I'll do in the future when I have to
>>> kill
>>> the inevitable rodent in my house. I always joke that I'll marry 
>>> somebody
>>> who will kill all of the vermin, but I know that won't always work. More
>>> importantly, I need to come up with a system for being able to detect,
>>> locate, and safely and successfully exterminate unwanted insects when 
>>> I'm
>>> by
>>> myself. After all, I won't live with my bug-killing parents forever.
>>>
>>> So, my fellow blind brethren, I ask you: What do you do in these
>>> situations?
>>> I know that not everyone has lived on their own in a non-dorm setting
>>> yet,
>>> but in any case, how have you - or how would you - handle it? I'm sure
>>> Deborah and Eric are veteran exterminators and have some great tips as
>>> well.
>>> I'm anxious to hear your thoughts and war stories - not only to get some
>>> good laughs, but also to give me some good ideas on how to work with my
>>> phobia.
>>>
>>> Thanks, everyone, and have a great week. Enjoy the sun!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Emily
>>>
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>
>
> -- 
> Kaiti Shelton
> University of Dayton 2016.
> Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
> Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma
>
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