Abatement

The weather these last few weeks has been wet. Very wet, but not uncharacteristic for this part of the country at this time of year. Winters in Northern CA usually get so bad that even the ants scurry inside seeking shelter.

I'm serious. It's well known in this city that winter brings ant infestations. I've had at least one in every building I've lived in. They're gross, but as soon as you can figure out where they're coming from, they're easy to kill, and they rarely come back. At least for me, but maybe I've just been lucky. I also vigilantly spray a couple of times a year, including at the beginning and in the middle of the rainy season.

Shortly after moving into my current home, I battled for a few weeks with the ants. They were coming in from two points - an electrical outlet in the kitchen, and an old cable hookup in my room. It took awhile to find their entry points, but I've since been so lucky to keep them at bay, that about six months ago I decided to move my couch to in front of the wall they used as their primary point of entry. I sprayed a shit ton of (natural and nontoxic) bug spray along that part of the wall, and settled into my new furniture arrangement.

Fast forward to this weekend: I was chatting with a friend who came home from a few days away to find an ant infestation in her kitchen. Our conversation about her ants, combined with the serious rain of the past several days, led me to move my couch to check for ants.

Thankfully, there are no ants making their way into my apartment. And for this I am grateful. However I'm not entirely in the clear.

Welcome to my mold infestation. Thankfully, there was something between the couch and the wall, so my couch was spared, but this is disgusting. It's also a pretty serious health hazard - and probably the reason my allergies have been so bad lately. I've bleached the wall clean, but that doesn't really fix the problem. I'm waiting to hear from my property manager about the arrival of the mold abatement team. They'll probably tear out this part of the wall, do some things to make sure moisture won't seep in again, and then replace the wall. I might actually prefer the ants.