Predators... and more Wet!
Jun. 19th, 2009 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo today I released new predators into the apartment ecosystem. My shipment of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri arrived, and I released twenty-five little ravenous beasts (well, I'm hoping), mostly onto the plants of the South window. The beans and squash there in particular have been hit rather hard. It's kind of scary at the moment. We'd been talking about trying the C montrouzieri for at least a year, and then after I ordered them we stopped killing mealy bugs on sight to make sure they'd be well fed. (Otherwise we'd been keeping it more or less under control. Mostly.)
I feel like I'm on a roll. Last year I gave R a bunch of worms from our worm bin to start hers. After our worm bin die off last winter she recently returned the favor, so I now have a bunch of happy little red worms. (Not enough yet to feed them to the planaria, who are still working on the organic beef kidney I bought them last summer. Though K is the keeper of the planaria. For the time being at least I am now the keeping of the worm bin, as I brought new worms in.) And I've had my first harvest of beans, (these are the beans from the west window, which were put in first) and will have my first bell pepper soon - though I should harvests beans soon too, maybe sooner. (The bell pepper has been a long time coming - this is the plant that was injured last winter.)
Before I released our little carnivorous friends, I had a bit of a shock. I came home, and things looked weird. There was a lot of stuff in the livingroom. And there was an odd noise coming from my bedroom, and the hall carpet was undulating.
Apparently the hot water had shut off while Kendrick was in the shower this morning. (I'd just left.) So he rinsed off in cold water, turn the cold water off, and headed in... And apparently the shower drain does drain as quickly as the shower runs, and the hot water came back on... and it's probably a good thing that the neighbors noticed dripping, and the building people came in and dealt with things as best the could.
There is currently a fan in my room blowing air under the rug. It did not get my bed wet - or really, get anything important wet. Kendrick's room is in worse shape, especially since his bed is even more minimalist than is mine. (I suspect he will sleep on the futon.) Of course, he's heading to Portland first thing in the morning, so if there are things to be dealt with they will probably be mine to deal with. Still, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.
I feel like I'm on a roll. Last year I gave R a bunch of worms from our worm bin to start hers. After our worm bin die off last winter she recently returned the favor, so I now have a bunch of happy little red worms. (Not enough yet to feed them to the planaria, who are still working on the organic beef kidney I bought them last summer. Though K is the keeper of the planaria. For the time being at least I am now the keeping of the worm bin, as I brought new worms in.) And I've had my first harvest of beans, (these are the beans from the west window, which were put in first) and will have my first bell pepper soon - though I should harvests beans soon too, maybe sooner. (The bell pepper has been a long time coming - this is the plant that was injured last winter.)
Before I released our little carnivorous friends, I had a bit of a shock. I came home, and things looked weird. There was a lot of stuff in the livingroom. And there was an odd noise coming from my bedroom, and the hall carpet was undulating.
Apparently the hot water had shut off while Kendrick was in the shower this morning. (I'd just left.) So he rinsed off in cold water, turn the cold water off, and headed in... And apparently the shower drain does drain as quickly as the shower runs, and the hot water came back on... and it's probably a good thing that the neighbors noticed dripping, and the building people came in and dealt with things as best the could.
There is currently a fan in my room blowing air under the rug. It did not get my bed wet - or really, get anything important wet. Kendrick's room is in worse shape, especially since his bed is even more minimalist than is mine. (I suspect he will sleep on the futon.) Of course, he's heading to Portland first thing in the morning, so if there are things to be dealt with they will probably be mine to deal with. Still, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.
