franksolich's adopted grandmother has frogs in the kitchen

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x48584

Oh my.  This seems a rather peculiar sort of problem to have.

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 05:15 PM
Original message

Natural pest control in the kitchen? LOL
   
I don't know why or how but we have been finding little frogs in our kitchen now for several weeks. We only find one at a time, usually first thing in the morning, and throw them outside. This makes about ten of them! This time my husband decided we would leave the latest one to possibly help control the fruit flies, because we eat mostly fruits and veggies they have been getting a little out of control.

So here's my latest kitchen assistant, I guess. We know it's a she because she hasn't uttered a sound. Some of the others have.

after which photograph of a frog or a toad or an amphibian or something

I filled a little saucer of water for her and sat her in it.

after which photograph of some cold little reptilian thing sitting in a saucer

They have all been confining themselves to the corner by the microwave or they sit on top of my stand mixer right next to it or on top of the goose neck faucet.

I had bought a small venus flytrap plant but they fruit flies are so light, they can land on the flowers with complete immunity. So far the best fruit fly remedy was contrived by my husband. I had an empty Earthbound Farms lettuce container and he poked holes in the lid. He then laid a banana peel inside, about half covered it with water and drizzled the water with dish soap so they would sink when they landed. Really works pretty good, a lot better than the cider vinegar version.

bicentennial_baby  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 05:38 PM
Response to Original message

1. Our solution:
   
ALL food scraps go in a plastic bag in the freezer. The only food waste that is allowed in the garbage is coffee grounds. We do have fruit on the table, and the occasional onions or tomatoes, but we never have fruit flies.

I dunno.  Again, a primitive making life harder than it has to be.

franksolich merely tosses anything decayable out on the garden, including coffee grounds.

What's this deal about not saving coffee grounds?

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 05:54 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. We compost all of our kitchen scraps.
   
I have a large container with a pail inside. I would love to find something I could attach to the top of the lid that would kill the fruit flies without tainting the scraps that go out to the compost pile with any chemicals. I also keep many of our fresh fruits and veggies on the countertop rather than in the fridge.

Fruit flies aren't usually really that big of a nuisance until there are so many of them. I'm sure living in an apartment several floors up it's a different story for you and sniffa.

Interesting.  The bi-centennial boobs primitive lives with the sniffing primitive.

Warpy  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 07:33 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. It sounds like your amphibian friends will do a good job and other than wiping down surfaces before you put food on them, I can't see any reason in the world for refusing to tolerate your guests.

I tolerate spiders for the same reason.

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-14-08 10:23 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. She was on top of the stand mixer early this morning as I was working in the kitchen. I was working all around and above her and she didn't move at all. A little bit later, she hopped across to the microwave into her saucer of water for a bit then went behind the microwave to sleep for the day. I think she's getting into the rhythm of the kitchen.

Warpy  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-14-08 10:47 AM
Response to Reply #5

7. I'm jealous, I have to admit I was the type of little girl who loved worms and frogs and bugs.

The only critters I've had visit my kitchen in NM have been a whiptail lizard and the neighbor's cat. Both were welcome. I had one line of pissants going after the cat's food, swept em up and mopped the trail with white vinegar and they never came back.

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-14-08 11:45 AM
Response to Reply #7

8. The years I've spent out here on "the farm" have been some of the happiest of my life. Once I got over the scorpions, that is. Not so many of those now that the house is nearer to being finished. We have pretty little blue and green striped skinks that get in once in awhile, too.

Thanx for that info on mopping the ant trail with vinegar. I'll have to remember that the next time we have any come in. Been a while for that, too, thank goodness.

The sparkling husband primitive speaks from his porcelain throne in the basement:

Husb2Sparkly  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 10:56 PM
Response to Original message

4. Our dogs would eat those
   
Sparkly made this video of them chasing a backyard visitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAh2FS5RBTM

(The bunny was long gone before we let the dogs loose. Actually, they never catch anything ..... but they do keep the <very destructive> deer at bay.)

The dogs are Molly, the Big Wussy Shepard, and Doovy (no, not doobey) Haskell (Eddie's canine reincarnation), who is forever getting Molly to do stuff, like go into the creek and come back smelling like a swamp, all the while acting all sweet and innocent.

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-14-08 10:27 AM
Response to Reply #4

6. Lovely puppies!
   
Your dogs really crack me up. They look like really fun companions.

Yeah, our cats would, too, if they knew she existed. So far, they're just babies and are only interested in chasing each other.

after which some photographs of small cats

[LC EFA]

When the wet season is in full swing I get baby green tree frogs leaping inside too, always at night. Little things, ranging from 1/2" to 1" . They're attracted to the bugs that are attracted to by the light.

Plenty of competition for em with my legions of gheko warriors, the larger adult frogs, and (when outside) the cane toads.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

The sparkling husband primitive speaks from his porcelain throne in the basement

Good Lord Frank! Can you imagine the "cloud deck"emanating from that bathroom?

[JohnnyReb]

...and reptiles are a good source of Sam-o-nilla. We should encourage all DUmmies to put toads in there kitchens.

[thundley4]

When I was living in the barracks down in Orlando, we had some sort of lizards in our room. We left them alone because they took care of those huge Florida waterbugs/roaches, whateverthehell they were.

[asdf2231]

I had to re-read this...

Am I wrong or is this idiot actually trying to use garbage to attract bugs in her home to feed the frogs that got in somehow?!

Geezus Wept.

[JohnnyReb]

I had to re-read this...

Am I wrong or is this idiot actually trying to use garbage to attract bugs in her home to feed the frogs that got in somehow?!

Geezus Wept.

The government has spent 'millions' try to kill out the fruit flys.......and she's raising them in her kitchen no less.

[GOBUCKS]

Someone tell DUmmy hippywife she has fruit flies in her kitchen because they're attracted to all the frog shit.

[franksolich]

Here's one of the things I don't get.

The hippowife obviously wishes to live "the old way," the natural way, roughing it.

So what's she doing with a microwave oven?

[PatriotGame]

hippywife  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-13-08 05:15 PM
Original message

Natural pest control in the kitchen? LOL
   
I don't know why or how but we have been finding little frogs in our kitchen now for several weeks. We only find one at a time, usually first thing in the morning, and throw them outside. This makes about ten of them! This time my husband decided we would leave the latest one to possibly help control the fruit flies, because we eat mostly fruits and veggies they have been getting a little out of control.

Check me if I am wrong but is not one of the plagues wrought by God is locust and frogs?
The DUmmys better hold on to their asses because when the almighty does come back, I am confident thay are going to have a rough ride.

[asdf2231]

Here's one of the things I don't get.

The hippowife obviously wishes to live "the old way," the natural way, roughing it.

So what's she doing with a microwave oven?

Maybe it's the all natural kind the Pre-Cambrian homonids used.

Or possibly it is a "Green" microwave powered by Gerbils on wheels.

[franksolich]

Uh oh.

Primitives reading this ancient thread, probably waxing nostalgic for the hippywife primitive, Mrs. Alfred Packer.

Enjoy it again, folks.

[BlueStateSaint]

Uh oh.

Primitives reading this ancient thread, probably waxing nostalgic for the hippywife primitive, Mrs. Alfred Packer.

Enjoy it again, folks.

I was wondering why it went zombie on us!  (We need a 'zombie' emoticon.)

[franksolich]

I was wondering why it went zombie on us!  (We need a 'zombie' emoticon.)

Yeah, this one's from w-a-a-a-y back.

It was when I was still impressed with the hippywife primitive, and even thought if I'd win the Powerball, I'd bring her up here from Oklahoma to run my house.

I was calling her "Grandma" back then, because she reminded me much of my grandmother.

Of course, later Tangerine LaBamba spilled the beans on her, and I was compelled to re-baptize her "Mrs. Alfred Packer."

[Skul]

I have squirrels in the livingroom. Frogs in the kitchen..meh.

[JohnnyReb]

4 years......I say fried frog legs should be on the menu by now.

[vesta111]

4 years......I say fried frog legs should be on the menu by now.

Have to say fruit fly are very easy to get, just wash off in cold water all produce brought into the house dry it and refrigerate it.   We get them little buggers at least once a year, clearly MY fault as there are times when I am rushed for time and forget to do so.   

How to get rid of them, just take any Vegetables out to the trash can that are not washed or refrigerated. 

All these new and interesting fruits and vegetables that come in from over seas, the method of transport from where ever to your home, Cross contamination can take place in the back of a truck if last load was infected and new clean produce loaded into a non cleaned trailer.

Old habits die hard, as a little kid living in Panama I watched my Mom up end all paper bags of food, ---and the smell of Clorox used to disinfect the produce at the Navy Commissary yet some times a bug or two survived and Mom was there with a fly swatter.

I still do this , just a habit, however sometimes something will get past me and I have to hunt down what it is and for anyone who has had a potato rot in the bottom of a bag, the awful smell leads you right to it.

[franksolich]

4 years......I say fried frog legs should be on the menu by now.

Because of the cats, despite that I live way out here in the rustic country, I've only ever had one time where an unwanted "guest" showed up in the kitchen (and that wasn't voluntarily).

The presence of cats seems to deter most animal and insect life.

Because during the spring, summer, and autumn, the cats have unlimited 24/7/365 entry into the house, sometimes when I'm gone, they drag in livestock, most of the time dead livestock (birds, squirrels, rabbits).

But one time I came home and there was a 4'-long snake, about as big around as my lower arm, right smack in the middle of the kitchen floor.  A cat had dragged it in, and it was still alive, although dazed.

I picked it up by its tail and flung it out past the back porch into the back yard.

[vesta111]

Because of the cats, despite that I live way out here in the rustic country, I've only ever had one time where an unwanted "guest" showed up in the kitchen (and that wasn't voluntarily).

The presence of cats seems to deter most animal and insect life.

Because during the spring, summer, and autumn, the cats have unlimited 24/7/365 entry into the house, sometimes when I'm gone, they drag in livestock, most of the time dead livestock (birds, squirrels, rabbits).

But one time I came home and there was a 4'-long snake, about as big around as my lower arm, right smack in the middle of the kitchen floor.  A cat had dragged it in, and it was still alive, although dazed.

I picked it up by its tail and flung it out past the back porch into the back yard.

You make me laugh, I worked with a middle aged woman in charge of QC at last place of employment, they received leather from all over the world.   Her job was to inspect all shipments

She tells me that one shipment came in and she found herself looking at a baby Cobra that had survived the trip.  So funny as she was not a young chick and had no idea what to do.   She had enough brains to reseal the box and call her boss.  He arrived a bit of a milk toast and re opened the box for him to see for himself and the snake was GONE, under the hides.  Her boss was not happy about being interrupted for a false alarm and took the open box back to his office. 

No one knows what happend next but next day the woman was fired and came to work with me a few weeks later.

BTW the Asians told me, those that eat Cobra that in order to kill them they pick them up by the tail and whip them like a raw hide whip to break their back.  Some of these snake masters are famous in their part of the world.     

[Big Dog]

Mrs. Alfred Packer's kitchen had:
1. A plague of flies
2. A plague of frogs
3. Rotten banana peels

The Bison Tennile primitive kept her trash in the freezer.

I'm surprised either of them are still alive!

[diesel driver]

Mrs. Alfred Packer's kitchen had:
1. A plague of flies
2. A plague of frogs
3. Rotten banana peels

The Bison Tennile primitive kept her trash in the freezer.

I'm surprised either of them are still alive!

I have a better use for my freezer.

I keep FOOD in it! 

I put my TRASH in a TRASHCAN.

A place for everything, and everything in its place.