Monday, May 17, 2010

Bugs and other pests @ your library

We have had an ant problem at our branch for quite some time, so it's not uncommon for a patron to report ants in the children's storytime room, or to get emails with the subject line "Ants in 200's - tell exterminator when you see him!"
A couple weeks ago I received an inner office memo from admin and when I took out the paper I saw that an ant had traveled with it. So why were we surprised when one of our pages noticed that there were actual ant hills, several of them in the staff lunch room lining the wall? Or maybe, why are we surprised period when we're leaving Phyllis's old birthday cake out all night?!

In a new email this morning, a coworker reported the addition of a baby mouse being spotted in the kitchen. I emailed her back asking how she knew it was a baby, but didn't get a response (maybe I like asking asshole questions), instead she asked if we should put traps out. This sent me into a flashback from my old job when we had a rat and my boss kept putting glue traps out, which I collected behind him and promptly threw away. The glue traps are disgusting if you've ever come across an occupied on and I've always felt they are inhumane. I also liked this rat because he, or one of his friends or relatives, had a hole right outside my window and I'd spend some mornings (after I'd played zookeeper, checked my email 17 times, and zoned out long enough) watching him dig in his hole. First he would dig with his front feet, then switch and dig with his back, then switch again. I felt like I was watching National Geographic at home, except I was sitting next to a basement level window at work. To reward my rat friend, I would often dump my remaining french fries from the McDonald's across the street into his hole. It made my boss pissed, but I didn't care, and one day I thought I saw the rat waving at me, but I had also been breathing in varnish all morning in a poorly ventilated basement library.
What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, I never got to eat any of Phyllis's cake.

3 comments:

  1. I think all libraries have their share of animal infestations. At every branch I have worked at there has always been an issue from ants in the kitchen sofa, feral cats, to rampant mice, and now bandit raccoons.

    Are you going to raise the baby mouse and name him Ratatouille? Because that would totally kick ass. And its a "baby" mouse because its small, duhhhhhh...

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  2. No one has seen this fabled baby mouse yet. It is possible my coworker made it up to get more attention. If I find it, I'm going to make it do all my evil library biding.

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  3. We have ants and I swear I saw a cockroach roaming around yesterday. Our Orkin guy just happened to make a routine stop today to check our critter traps and he assured me that what I saw was just a black beetle, but I think he was lying.

    Mmm, cake.

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