There was a definite "war theme" going on with me and Georges this weekend. First, we saw two movies that had bloody war scenes in them -- A Very Long Engagement (First World War) and then Atonement (Second World War). And then, we had our own little battle going on in the house: the Great Paris Worm War.
You know it's real love when you both, as a couple, spend a good portion of the weekend emptying and cleaning the insides and outsides of his kitchen cabinets after discovering an infestation of moth larvae. And when you are still smiling and kissing by the end of it all. Because somehow, doing a disgusting job like that is a lot better when you do it as a team. It was us against the bugs in this war, and even though we were greatly outnumbered, I think we're winning.
Seriously, these little worms were totally disgusting. I saw one a few days ago, but thought maybe it was something that the cat dragged in. You know: Bugs Happen and the world will never be insect-free. But then we found two more INSIDE the door of a kitchen cabinet, and a small live moth. Then I looked up and counted about a half-dozen worms all over the kitchen ceiling. Georges killed them all, but then 10 minutes later (I kid you not, it was no more than 10 minutes) three or four more appeared out of nowhere. It was bizarre and more than a little creepy.
We cleaned out one big kitchen cabinet on Saturday, the one where the cereals, pastas, tea, flour and sugar are stored, because we weren't sure what these worms were, exactly, and whether or not they might be in the food. We were hoping they WERE moth larvae and not (shudder) maggots. Poor Georges was on the floor wiping down all the insides of the cabinet, and covered in flour by the end of it. We didn't find any bugs in the food, thank goodness, and we thought maybe we'd gotten rid of the problem, and congratulated ourselves on getting a jump start on the spring cleaning. But not long after we did all that work, we saw more of them. They just kept APPEARING, and way out in the middle of the ceiling a few feet away from any cabinets. We couldn't figure out what was going on.
I couldn't sleep half the night, wondering if more of those worms were on the kitchen ceiling. Fortunately we didn't find them anywhere else in the house, so we knew they weren't from the type of moths that would go into the clothes closets. But those worms just creeped me out, big time. And sure enough, when we woke up Sunday morning, there were more of them on the ceiling again.
So went to the bricolage to buy some kind of appropriate insecticide that could be used around food, and sure enough there are products that are for these types of moths (called "mites" en français, in case you need to know this -- in English, mites are another type of insect entirely) that gravitate to the food supply. Now that I think back on it, I had been noticing these tiny moths (about the size of small housefly) at his place the past couple of weeks since I've been back, but thought they were just coming in from outside whenever someone opened the door (and the cat is quite good at figuring out how to get the door open when she wants to sneak outside and play in the courtyard). I realize now that the moths had already invaded and set up housekeeping.
Because we cleaned out all the other cabinets where food was kept, and sure enough, we found them. We also found evidence that someone had left sticky moth traps in one of those cabinets in the past, so this might be a recurring problem. Ugh. Georges (my hero) did the work of disposing of them, of climbing up into the cabinets and taking everything out and then wiping down the insides well, and he scoured the poubelles as well, with bleach, just for good measure. I got to be the "assistant"; he passed me items out of the cabinets to go into the trash, and I kept him well supplied with spray cleaner and paper towels, and later washed out various containers and things. And while we were at it, we cleaned and degreased the range hood and cleaned under and behind the microwave, and wiped down the countertops. Then Georges set up the little moth traps in a few places, including inside one of the cabinets. We found a few renegade worms trying to make a break for it after that, but they didn't get far, and this morning we found ZERO. And I slept a lot better last night.
So, we REALLY got a jump on spring cleaning... not something we'd expected to be doing this weekend but it needed to be done just the same. And it was afterward that we both looked at each other and said, "Even this awful job was (almost) fun for us, because at least we did it together." Another step in our evolution as a couple and in my transformation from someone who is, for now, a regular house guest, but who will have a different role in the household before too long.
And you really have to love a man who refuses to let YOU be the one to clean out the cabinets and garbage bins, and who will willingly kill bugs for you... and not make fun of you even once, for asking him to do it.
