And now, for the conclusion… (or is it?)
The latest thrilling contact with household pests/freeloaders/invaders came just a about a month ago while prepping the furnace for cold weather. In the most appropriate OCD fashion, I meticulously vacuumed every possible square inch of duct I could reach in the vents and returns. I spent a good hour or more doing this before proceeding down into the crawl space below the house. This same crawl space which had previously housed BLACK WIDOWS and other pests.
The gas was shut off and the area properly vented for several days so I could vacuum out all the dust and copious spiderwebs from the lower reaches of the ductwork. As soon as I removed the filter from the furnace, I noticed what looked like a piece of yarn or pipe cleaner which was bent around far retainer bracket for the filter. A brief moment of dread flitted across my mind and I dismissed it, seeing the large collection of crap which had collected literally everywhere. It was mindboggling just how much crap there was to clean out.
I slowly worked my way from from back to front, working toward that pipe cleaner only to find that it was attached to something more. Feeling rather like Howard Carter after the long work meticulous excavation, I discovered the mummified remains of a mouse. In contrast to the last two experiences, I was not the responsible, directly or indirectly, for this creature’s death. This did not bring me much relief, however, as the discovery was accompanied by a fit hand wringing and dancing around on tip-toe while willing the problem to resolve itself.
(Did I mention that this was done in both previous cases? No? Well it happened and I’m not ashamed to admit it!!! We all cope in different ways!)
I used an old grocery bag to retrieve the tiny little carcass and dispose of the evidence and began disinfecting EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. I followed this up with the installation of the most megalithic überfilter I could find at my local home improvement store and buttoned everything up and began to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
As of the time I am writing this, I’ve been very lucky and thankful to enjoy a critter-free home. I’m very sure that this will not be my last escapade in dealing with dead creatures. Home ownership is and always will be full of moments like this: sometimes dead animals, other times exciting plumbing, the list goes on. It’s all about the spin I put on instances like this which determine just how frustrating or humorous they turn out to be. I tend to aim for humor, it seems to be much easier to handle in the long run and makes me less crazy when I stumble into the next exciting disaster.