The 3 R's: Roaches, Rats, and Raccoons

The 3 R’s: Roaches, Rats, and Raccoons

If you know me, you know that I am terribly afraid of mice and rats. I can’t stand to see them in person or on TV…watching Ratatui was even hard for me. And forget about going to the pet store…I break out in goose bumps just having to walk by the mice display (and why is it the mice display is in the center isle of the pet store and the cute cuddly cats are always way in back?????).

Soooo when my friend told us about a new show called Billy the Exterminator I thought uh oh……but being the “great” mom I am I tivoed it for the boys so we would see what it was all about. Guess what? Surprise…it is all about roaches, rats, raccoons, and any other ferment you will find living in southern Louisiana. And guess what?? The boys love it! The first show we sat down to watch was about a rat infestation. I had to walk out of the room. Tyler, my sweet son, says “mom it’s OK Billy is talking about Raccoons now, you can come back.” I walk back in to see rats and more rats….THANKS SWEET TYLER….as he laughs. Why do boys think it’s funny when mom gets grossed out?????

I will admit the show is pretty interesting, that is, when they aren’t exterminating a house with such a bad roach investigation that Billy finds a dead rat being eaten by more roaches. I once told a friend I would rather have a million roaches crawling on me than see one single mouse….I might reconsider this after watching this roach episode.

I must thank Billy, the inspiration, for this great picture of the boys. They took it upon themselves to dress up like him. Oh ya, and thanks Billy for letting us know what is good Raccoon bait….we seem to have our own little Raccoon problem here.

Page 2 of my summer vacation essay would sound something like this:

“The boys and I went out to swim one day while Jon was away. As we turned the corner we heard an unfamiliar sound. To our surprise we saw a baby Raccoon trying to get into the shop. The boys and I froze as we watched it. We finally decided to get in the pool. The boys tried to be quite as they swam…they didn’t want to scare the baby Raccoon. A couple of minutes later I could feel an unfamiliar pair of eyes staring at me….yes, it was the mommy raccoon coming out to get her baby. I jumped…which caused the boys to scream…as we watched her and the baby disappear up into the rafters of daddy’s shop.

Tyler then says, “Mommy can we call Billy to come get these Raccoons?”

“No Tyler, Billy lives too far away…but we are lucky, we have our own Billy the Exterminator aka…Daddy. When daddy gets home he can trap them.”

Now 2 traps are set with Trail Mix (thanks Billy for the suggestion) and it’s been 2 days and no Raccoons yet…..maybe we will be giving Billy a call after all.”