Friday, September 11, 2009

Gone to the mattresses.

A dog is a man’s best friend. And fleas are common dog companions. If you have a pack of stray dogs living nearby it is only reasonable to expect that sooner or later the fleas will follow. The odds of being infested with fleas grows dramatically higher when neighbors in a desperate attempt to free themselves from those unwelcome guests call the exterminator and treat their yard and house. The fleas, naturally, run for their lives and relocate to the nearest quarters. Incidentally, it happens to be our yard and house.

Now, being bitten time after time after time brought our attention to the problem. Since we don’t fraternize with stray dogs and in no way invite fleas to our house, we called the department of our embassy that deals with various problems with the houses and asked for help. What we received was the advice, “Try to mix half water/ half vinegar and spray everything in the house. Fleas don’t like vinegar.”

We didn’t have vinegar in the house at the time of receiving the advice, so at first we consulted the I-net and found out that besides vinegar, fleas are not particularly fond of salt. Why, we have plenty of salt! Stripping all the bedding from the beds, we sprinkled salt under the mattresses, on the carpets and all other places we could think of and left it for a few days. One would think we were preparing to battle some Dark Forces. Dark Forces in the face of fleas didn’t budge, but our carpets and floors acquired a certain crunchiness.

Next step was to try vinegar/water solution. Methodically I went from room to room spraying mattresses, spring boxes, carpets, undercarperts and everything sprayable. It took me the whole day and several bottles of vinegar. The stench of vinegar penetrated the house and frankly wasn’t very pleasant. The army of fleas slowed their march but the victory was nowhere near.

Finally, the owner was informed that I really wanted to invite exterminators to the house. What did he do? He brought me some powder. I thought, “What the heck, I will try it as well”, but then I read the instructions. In order to use this remedy I was strongly advised to wear gloves, a mask, a robe and put it only in the places not reachable for kids. That is when I decided to ring back to the embassy, after all they suppose to look after us. Well, apparently “looking after us” doesn’t include our particular predicament. Having my best interests in mind, of course, how else can it be, they couldn't provide me with the list of the Pest Control companies in Baku. The nadir of my conversation came with, “You have to do it alone, Mrs.”

“You have to do it alone” - it has philosophical ring to it, isn’t it?


Anyhow, if anybody knows of an exterminator company in Baku or, perhaps, a company who can thoroughly clean carpets and furniture, it will be highly appreciated.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Puzon Co. tel.495-8795

The Expatresse said...

In Buenos Aires (2000) I allowed a pigeon to nest on our window sill. After the babies hatched and fledged, we we invaded by mites! I went to the pet store and bought some sort of toxic bombs. We were going away for the weekend, so I set them off and ran away. They worked. I can no longer do long division, but the apartment was vermin-free.

VC said...

To Anonymous: My thanks for the telephone, I cetainly will give them a call.


To The expatresse: Thank you, I haven't thought of consulting a pet store. I guess not owning a pet slows my mind.

VC