July 14, 2011

OSHA? Bah!

Subtitle: You're Not in Kansas Anymore

We live in an island nation in the tropics. 

This makes for a large and hungry mosquito population.  Not necessarily larger or hungrier than, say, Coastal Louisiana or Key West, but still substantial.

We like to spend time outdoors, and we have a nice yard and pool in which to do it, so luckily our landlord provides free fogging for the mosquito problem.  Mosquitoes here don't carry malaria which is a nice change from Africa, and they don't carry West Nile which is a nice change from Houston, but they do carry Dengue and we don't really want it. 

We did our best to ensure that the fogging stuff he uses is not any more toxic than the stuff they load on the trucks and drive around neighborhoods in the U.S. and we now get fogged every first Tuesday of the month.

The guy who does it is so very nice and cheerful.

Every month he comes to the house, every month the security guard informs me he is here and asks permission to let him do his job. I haven't figured out why he needs permission every single time and abstract discussions are still beyond my language skills, so I just smile and say "Baiklah".

Anyway, he comes and puts on his 'safety equipment' and fires up his fogger, which sounds like a marine engine, out of water, with a glass pack.

Without further comment, I provide photographic documentation for your horror and amusement.












 Now, lest you think we trust our entire mosquito well being to Mr. Safety Fogger, think again!  

We also have Mosquito Tennis Racquets.

They plug into the wall and once they are charged up, you flip a switch and swing them randomly through the air and when they come in contact with anything solid-ish, they SNAP and fry it to bits.  

When we first got them, my Scale Model accidentally grabbed it by the business end and got SNAPPED for his trouble.  

He is more careful now.  

We got one for the security guards too, and the sound of SNAP...SNAP SNAP SNAP...SNAPPITY SNAP! can be heard from the garage at irregular intervals depending on the humidity and boredom levels out there.
 
We rarely have mosquitoes indoors, but sometimes we get a crop and then it's normal to see one of us reading or watching TV while occasionally sweeping the air around us with a charged up racquet. 



And it wouldn't be any fun without a photo of my scale model and our wiseacre kid holding two of our magic bug snappers.  





[p.s. College student for sale- take over payments.  :-)]


1 comment:

Barbara said...

lol.... couldn't help but equate your bug guy's equipment to Ghost Busters'! Who you gonna call?

Got any takers on the college student yet? Didn't think so. :) Will you take a trade for one teen and one tween boy! And I'll throw in a low maintenance 10 year old princess just for the heck of it.