tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post1643380890096403491..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: You're never alone with Tineola by Maria McCannMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-59026910477056746392014-02-03T20:31:56.133+00:002014-02-03T20:31:56.133+00:00A fascinating piece. Our dog used to have fleas, i...A fascinating piece. Our dog used to have fleas, in spite of all products used to get rid of them, but they have vanished as she got older - I guess, just as nits are supposed to prefer younger heads. Of course, the reason the nits didn't migrate to the body from the head is that they are specialised for head-hair, just as crabs prefer - well, yes. Elizabeth of Bohemia remarked maliciously, subsequent to the Austrian Empire having expelled her from Bohemia, that the new Emperor would be 'lousie, for he hath no money to buy new clothes.' So clearly the only way to truly get rid of the infestation was to bin your old wardrobe - the insect contribution to fashion!<br />On the topic of cockroaches, they were endemic in Hong Kong when we lived there. I remember switching on the light in the kitchen at night and seeing them scuttling away on every work surface. I used to disinfect every surface, and chopping boards, with Miltons before I prepared food, and flour, biscuits, cakes, etc all had to be kept in tins and other roach-proof containers. There was every conceivable breed of cockroach, but the most noticeable was the big 'German' cockroach, over an inch long, and red. I remember one, once, purposefully getting into the lift with me, but I poked it over the edge with my umbrella. It fell down several stories, but I am sure it survived. Another one came to live in the cupboard where we kept telephone directories, where it ate a quarter of the New Territories Yellow Pages. Getting the flat fumigated, and the use of Baygon, was just part of life.Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-66876652194179504662014-02-03T08:50:42.596+00:002014-02-03T08:50:42.596+00:00This post strikes such a chord. We've just bee...This post strikes such a chord. We've just been dealing with a cat flea infestation and been bitten to an unattractive state of spottiness. Feels like we are constantly cleaning and hanging things out in the sunshine to air. No sense of shame, just much itchiness.Kithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775620533036245227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-74872540686015086892014-01-30T12:49:28.786+00:002014-01-30T12:49:28.786+00:00I itched all the time I was writing it! Something...I itched all the time I was writing it! Something odd seems to have happened to my footnotes, perhaps an infestation.... Michelle, I love the idea of talking the rats into doing the gentlemanly thing. It's like those stories of mediaeval clergy formally judging and damning beetles.Maria McCannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05918176482122045617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-67122192804447923092014-01-30T09:44:16.769+00:002014-01-30T09:44:16.769+00:00Fascinating and horrible in equal measure - thank ...Fascinating and horrible in equal measure - thank you for posting! (she said, scratching furtively ...)Joan Lennonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15763862159032836768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-24528858498821024222014-01-30T08:27:41.516+00:002014-01-30T08:27:41.516+00:00Thank you for a wonderful post. I envy the way you...Thank you for a wonderful post. I envy the way you seem to have accommodated the whole infestation thing with equanimity. I have just been reading about how the Irish would rhyme rats to death (or at least out of their houses). I tried to use a Turkish rat curse in my house once - you address all four walls where the rat might lurking and ask it to cease and desist its depredations. There was a wonderfully named patent poison - 'Rough on Rats' - that apparently did the work of many curses. The advertisements can be seen on line and are rather hilarious, if sometimes a little racist. michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.com