Bug Bait

A while back I think I mentioned in passing that we had a bug problem here at work. Well, I think I’m ready to talk about it or at least blog about it anyway.

A month or so ago, I began to constantly hear the chirping of crickets. It was seriously so loud that I felt as though I worked at a bait and tackle store. Then one day I started finding crickets climbing on the walls, jumping around on the floor, lying dead on the filing cabinets; and I wasn’t the only one. When Tony worked here, he sat in the cubicle next to me and he had dead bugs on his desk on a daily basis. One day, a couple of bugs fell from the ceiling onto his desk. I thought he was exaggerating, but later that same day while sitting in his cubicle, I had one land on my leg. Crickets and beetles seemed to be what plagued us the most.

It started getting out of control and was becoming an everyday occurrence. I can only assume these critters wanted to get in from the heat like us humans; but they needed to find another refuge from the sun. We let our VP know about the problem and he got on the backs of the folks in charge of bug control; but still the problem didn’t seem to go away.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a bug fall on my head, another in my lap and still others on my desk, all while I was sitting at my desk working. It was awful. If anyone has ever seen me around bugs, then you know how crazy I get. I hate bugs; make that HATE! They are gross and creepy and give me the ibby jibbys. So, needless to say, on those occasions when these bugs were falling on me, I screamed and jumped out of my seat and danced around like a crazy person. It’s a miracle I didn’t take my clothes off in the process as has been done in the past and witness by readers of this blog. It was as though those bugs were looking down at the top of my head and placing bets on who could land on top of it.

This past Monday, I came in and saw a cockroach that was no less than four inches long and quite wide crawling on the wall in front of my cubicle. I screamed, but no one was around because I am usually one of the first people to arrive. Finally I saw a person and made sure I had a witness to the large creature. I emailed the VP and told him that a roach the size of a small mouse was right in front of me and that if it fell on my head I was done for the day. My secretary, Bonnie, and I watched it crawl up the ceiling and disappear beside a skylight. That afternoon, Bonnie decided to nickname me “Bug Bait” and put a sign outside my cubicle declaring me as such.

On Tuesday, the Pest Control people finally arrived and interviewed me as to what my problems were. They said those large roaches were just wood roaches and carried no disease. I think they are lying! Did you know a roach can live for like two weeks without it’s head because they don’t have a central nervous system? It’s true! And disgusting! The Pest Control folks put out some traps – on the floor – and went about their business. I don’t know if they tackled the roof of our building or not, but those floor traps aren’t going to do much for the bugs that are falling from up above onto my freshly washed hair.

When I came in this morning, there were bugs in the traps outside of my cubicle, but not in any of the others. What is it about me that draw the bugs here? Why am I “Bug Bait”? I hope the bug drama goes away soon, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I imagine they will be lurking around every corner until the weather cools off. It would be preferable to have a cover over my cubicle, but that’s not easily done and holding an umbrella while typing is also not so easy. So, in the meantime, I’ll just roll with the punches and hope they don’t land in my breakfast or lunch.