Spring is a wonderful time of year: a time of increasing warmth, blooming flowers, and picnics. As if spring was ‘too’ perfect, however, fate and calumny (or possibly something more sinister? Keep reading for more information) combined to create the perfect wet blanket and cold fish—spring cleaning. Spring, of course, is that time of year when people traditionally start to do a ‘deep clean’ of their homes. Interestingly enough, some people believe that spring cleaning is traditionally done in the spring because it is warm enough to dust your home with the windows open, but not warm enough yet for the insects to fly inside. (This is actually contrary to what we know to be true—that spring cleaning was invented by the Illuminati to distract us from the real issues.)
Case in point: The other day, when my wife was suggesting that I get off my rear end to help with this stupid tradition, I started spouting off facts about the Illuminati, pointing out that spring cleaning was a social construct created by ‘The Man’ to keep us ignorant, to distract us from the real issues, etc. For some reason, she wasn’t buying it. Maybe it was because she’d been vacuuming for an hour while I’d been watching movies. Anyway, I told her “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!” to which she replied, “You’re only saying that because you just watched The Da Vinci Code and A Few Good Men.” She may have been right.
So the spring—I guess—is a good (enough) time of the year to clean your home…if you’re not busy watching a movie. The benefits are many, but actually have more to do with pests than you think. Recently, we have seen an uptick in carpet beetle activity inside Treasure Valley homes. The larvae of carpet beetles are what people typically see; they look like a hairy grain of rice. Left unchecked, they can cause damage. Because they eat pollen and nectar, adult carpet beetles are typically found outside, but they often lay eggs inside homes near larval food sources: wool, silk, leather, hair, fur, and sometimes on grains or grain products such as cornmeal and cereal. Soon after the eggs are laid, the larvae appear and begin feeding. Non-synthetic fabrics are often a target, with more than one coat, shirt, or valued clothing article having little holes eaten through and ruined. However, over the years we’ve found that one of the biggest food sources for carpet beetle larvae is pet hair on floors and along baseboards. To prevent a carpet beetle infestation, simply remove their food sources.
This brings us back full circle, to the dreaded ‘SC’ word: Spring Cleaning. Three simple words you need to memorize: Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum! This mantra will help prevent carpet beetle infestations, restore cleanliness to your home, and reestablish marital harmony. We’ll cover more about the Illuminati in next weeks blog.
CC image by Nick Goodrum at Flickr
