Uninvited dinner guests can be quite inconvenient, especially when they slither in on their own and insist on devouring whole eggs without even a hello. A North Carolina couple had to gently convince their unexpected guest to leave after a snake made itself at home in their kitchen and tucked in to a basket of eggs. [More]
pests
Study: Flies On Your Food Are Way More Disgusting Than Cockroaches
By 8.14.14
Bugs and food don’t mix. But would you rather see a cockroach scramble over your eggs or a fly alight for a few seconds before taking off? Though the housefly might appear less scary than a roach, a new study says we should be more worried about the former walking around on our food. [More]
Phony Bedbug Exterminator Steals Jewels
By 11.3.11
New York Police are warning Queens residents to be on the lookout for a jewel thief in bedbug exterminator’s clothing. [More]
We Were Told Snake Infestation Was "Made Up"
By 1.25.11
An interesting wrinkle to story about the house infested with thousands of snakes: when the previous owners bought it, they were told the owners before them “made up a story that there were snakes” in there to get out of paying their mortgage. The real estate agent also told them “every precaution” had been taken to make sure there was no snake problem. Unfortunately, the snakes turned out to be very real indeed. [More]
Realtor Slices Price On Snake Infested Home
By 1.24.11
Sounds like a ssssteal. A beautiful five-bedroom house in Idaho for only $109,000. It comes with a tiny catch: The house is infested with thousands of live, writhing garter snakes. [More]
Developers Spiking Homeowner Contracts With Hidden Resale Fee Covenants
By 9.13.10
Last April, Techdirt pointed out that a financial firm in Texas was trying to attach “private transfer fees” to homes, so that developers would get a little bit of each sale as it passed among owners in the years to come. It sounded crazy then–imagine having to pay royalties on clothes or furniture whenever you resold them–but the firm is aggressively expanding its plan and has signed up more than 5,000 developers across the country, reports the New York Times. If you buy a new house in the next decade, look for a “resale fee” covenant hidden in a separate document that might not be included in your closing papers or even require a signature. [More]
Trade Group Asks Obamas To Please Use Pesticides In Their Vegetable Garden
By 4.17.09
We don’t blame the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA)— a pesticide an agribusiness trade group—for promoting its interests, but we still think it’s funny that they’ve asked the first family to not grow organic vegetables in the White House vegetable garden. MACA’s Executive Director Bonnie McCarvel sent a long letter to Michelle Obama reminding her of the importance of technology in modern farming, then publicized the letter via an email where she noted, “While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder.”
Orkin "Lifetime Guarantee" Costs $214 A Year?
By 2.11.08
Chris writes, Last year we had Orkin come and get rid of a termite problem in our 60 year old house. It is a small three bedroom house and we were putting concrete siding on and discovered some termite trails.
Mice Found On United Airlines Flight
By 1.9.08
United Airlines Flight UA897 from Washington to Beijing landed in China with a mice infestation onboard, reported a Chinese state official on Monday: “Eight mice, dead and (alive), were found at last … hidden in pillows.” An “emergency team” boarded the craft and “put rat poison and mouse traps at every possible corner on the aircraft, including the cockpit… the surviving mice were sent to labs for testing.”
