Monday, July 26, 2010

26 JUL 10: Your Pest Prevention



As of Sunday night, my latest science experiment was still alive. I'm really not one for doing elaborate science experiments - although I've found if you never dust off your computer screen, a natural glare filter develops after a while.




This experiment involves a large cockroach, which happened to land in the wrong place at the wrong time. I spotted it Thursday evening inside an empty 16-ounce jar of honey on my kitchen counter. Roaches are the lazy person's dish cleaners, you know. The rice stuck to your serving spoon tonight could be all gone by breakfast time tomorrow.



I walked into the kitchen, spotted the cockroach in the honey jar and jumped on the opportunity. I grabbed the jar lid, twisted it tight -- and my experiment was under way. Animal rights groups will be pleased to learn I added no unseemly chemicals to the jar. And that includes my breath.



The experiment is simply a matter of life and death. How long can this cockroach survive in a closed environment? Call it a "Survivor" home game....



The honey jar had been rinsed for plastic recycling, so the cockroach has nothing to eat. It's apparently left a few (ahem) droppings in the jar, but clearly knows better than to eat them. And unlike other roaches, this one hasn't been scrambling to find an escape route -- as if it assumes one of the 100 new Columbus police officers will come to rescue it.



The cockroach clearly was slowing down, when I checked it Sunday night. It was upside down, but still flailing its legs and moving its feelers a bit. That's something to remember, if you hear on the news about businesses going "belly-up."



This actually is the second year in a row that I've stumbled upon this kind of cockroach experiment. But last year, I had to leave the roach behind after a couple of days when I left town for a church convention. Salvation certainly came up at that convention, but only for humans.



(Yes, the roach was dead by the time I returned home nine days later. In fact, I'd forgotten it had been left behind. But that's simply not the sort of thing you leave with the next-door neighbor for safeguarding -- especially when you don't have children, for creating a "science fair" excuse.)



If this all-natural form of fighting pests seems strange, consider what a man in my church congregation told me over the weekend. "I bought my first pack of cigarettes," he admitted. But no, he did NOT buy them for smoking - even though he became a grandfather for the first time a couple of weeks ago.



This man is trying to keep deer out of his garden - and he read online that nicotine would do the job. So he crushed ten cigarettes and made a formula for spraying on his vegetables. I'm not exactly sure how, but he says it works. Another man who heard about it guessed the deer die of lung cancer.



Hopefully this man will make sure the vegetables in his garden are rinsed, before he eats them. Otherwise, something even stranger and addictive could happen. I don't want to see him show up for a church dinner, and attempt to light a cucumber in his mouth.



-> Thursday night was another big one at the poker table for us. Read what happened (and more) at our other blog, "On the Flop!" <-



E-MAIL UPDATE: Uh-oh - I may already be in a new online journalist's dog house....



Richard, the Facebook picture? Really! Your post is inaccurate Richard. I do not have a recorded interview with Cheryl Walker. I NEVER offered to sell the taped interview with David Glisson to any outlet. That's something called Checkbook journalism. I do not and will not engage in such. I DID offer the interview to one station, WTVM as a freelance reporter asking to be compensated for my time shooting, writing, producing and editing the piece featuring David Glisson. BIG Difference Richard.



To be clear, The River City Report was created as a news clearinghouse like Drudge for people who don't have time to surf every website for detailed information, it's a great one stop shop for the community. As for the David Glisson interview, I verbally agreed with David not to air the video A. Until his death or B. until he authorized the release while still on this earth.



I don't sit around thinking about how I need an outlet for this interview.



Robbie



OK, OK -- thanks for the other side of the story. I thought Robbie Watson had told me she talked with Kenneth Walker's widow. Perhaps she did, but didn't record it. I'd think it would have made for a better documentary on "Frontline," but that's her decision.



And by the way: what's the problem with Facebook pictures? I don't think Robbie Watson looks bad in that photo. Unless I've ruined her plans to do undercover investigations at the Government Center....



Speaking of investigations, let's review a skimpy Sunday in terms of news:


+ The Ledger-Enquirer printed its own probe of the "missing" Columbus Fire/EMT audit, which The Courier uncovered several weeks ago. Mayor Jim Wetherington denied trying to hide the report, saying it was on file in his office since February 2009. Columbus Councilors apparently need a seminar in filing open records requests.



(Fire Chief Jeff Meyer admitted fire stations lack security cameras, so items can be stolen while crews are out on calls. Televisions can be taken, computers can disappear - and who knows how many drug addicts have searched for diabetes test kits.)



+ A Cherokee County, Georgia man reported finding four pounds of marijuana, hidden in the frame of a painting he bought five years ago. The painting shows a plant -- because if it showed a weed, that would simply be too obvious.



+ Columbus Northern whipped Warner Robins East 9-2 in the Georgia Little League baseball tournament. In a way, this was a rivalry game between two cities with familiar local icons - and you might say the Aflac duck defeated the lame duck.



+ Instant Message to Metropolitan Baptist Church on Fifth Avenue: I saw your Sunday sermon title on the marquee - "Been in the Valley Too Long." So how many members are planning to move to Atlanta?



The Blog of Columbus had nearly 25,000 unique visitors in the first half of 2010! To advertise to them, make a PayPal donation, offer a story tip or comment, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.



BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 499 (- 30, 5.7%)



The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.



© 2003-10 Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.




site stats