Where is Bernard of Clairvaux when we need him? We are experiencing a strange and unpleasant visitation of many flies, oh so many sleepy sluggish houseflies; they fly slowly from windowpane to windowpane; they seek light; they march across sills and perch on muntins; they gather inside lampshades. According to CSB, they have come inside because of the suddenly cold weather and woken up with the heat to have one last fly around before expiring. I am glad he posited that explanation because otherwise I might imagine there was a rotting corpse in the basement.
Many years ago (circa 1121) there was a similar infestation of pestilential flies in the church at Foigny, France. Bernard of Clairvaux - preacher of the Second Crusade, healer of schisms, condemner of heresies, and, alas, opponent of Abelard – entered the church, uttered the anathema of excommunication upon the flies and behold, they all died.
I have threatened excommunication, flunking, dunking and shunning. All to no avail. The flies are indifferent to my pleas.
Yesterday I had limited success with a flyswatter and each success was accompanied by a streaky stain of fly-guts across a windowpane.
On this snowy rainy Sunday CSB went out and acquired a package of Fly Strips™ (La Mosquera) and we have hung the sticky pheromone imbued coils in all the appropriate places.
Number of flies currently adhered to said fly strips: zero.
Which brings us back to the need for Saint Bernard.
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1 comment:
Flies, of course, are creepy things, and yet I like them at this time of year (in Vermont,
we'd have an infestation of ladybugs) as they remind me that winter is temporary...
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