omg that happend to me once, I went to cook a box of mac n cheese and didnt notice anything until I poured the noodles into the boiling water and noticed stuff floating at the top, I looked closer and noticed they were little bugs, I freaked and refused to eat anything that night, I threw out the rest of the mac n cheese boxes I had in there as well, I already keep my rice in plastic containers because I buy it in bulk, its MUCH easier to pull out a plastic container instead of a 20lb bag LOL. My flour and sugar are also kept in plastic containers, luckly I go through it fast enough. Once I found a roach in my powder sugar. I cleaned the entire kitchen and house that night, bought roach motels had my apt complex spray and bait. I hate living in apartments because of dirty people. I use hospital strength wipes that my sister gets for me to clean everything in my house. Seriously these are some bad ass wipes they kill aids virus as well as all the other icky stuff hospitals are exposed to. I sweep and mop my floors every night and still find critters, makes me so angry and grossed out.

I charge extra for bugs

The last apartment I lived in had BAD ant problems. The day after the first time I cooked in there I came home from work to find about 10 million tiny ants on my wall and in my trash can. I don't kid! It was amazing. At the top of the can there were about 10 lines of them going in and out, but it branched into a huge funnel shape and the top was about 3 feet wide, the whole thing was 5 feet tall up the wall, all solid ants. Inside the can was black with them, and the outside of the can was covered on one side similar to the wall. I sprayed pure bleach on them and it killed them instantly but that night I woke up to them crawling all over me, tickling, not biting! And I co-slept with my 6 month old, and they were all over her as well. I called the emergency number to the office, crying and they sprayed a caulked and I put diatomacious earth in all the sills and at the base of the walls and around the doors I still found them all the time, for 3 years, but never as bad as the first times. They ate holes out of the front of 3 of my nursing bras (peek-a-boo!), so I assume they were sugar ants. I only bought cake mix, and sugar and powdered sugar as I needed it, and kept it in the fridge.

My husband had a similar problem with roaches at an apartment he had after I threw him out one time. I won't get into it, it was horrible!!! He even kept his dishes, pots and pans in the refrigerater.

Bay Leaves!?! That's BRILLIANT! All natural, and if one of my kids were to get a hold of it and chomp on it, who cares!?! What bugs does that work for? In the summer I have to work my butt off to keep ants away. And of course, everyone in this state has problems with Boxelder bugs and Asian beetles. ERGH!

Last fall my wife started to complain that she kept getting faint urine-like smells from the kitchen, but I could never smell anything. We passed it off as the cat's litter box that was in the basement. A few weeks pass and I start noticing it...we also start to notice that our cat would spend HOURS laying in front of the stove staring at it like she was ready to pounce.

Finally, the day before my daughter's birthday party, my wife turned on the oven to bake her birthday cake and the kitchen filled with the most god-awful funk you have ever smelled in your life. We figured that a mouse had gotten into the oven door and died. So I took the door off and dismantled it....no mouse.

The next step was to pull the range away from the wall and pop the back. I noticed that some of the fiberglass insulation around where the power cable ran up to the range top was disturbed, so we pulled the top off the range.

Turns out a mouse decided to use the insulation around the oven as a home (he actually poked his head out to say hi when we pulled the top)...and he decided to put his 'bathroom' right next to a heating element. So when the oven got hot....

5 minutes later that stove was on the curb and we were in the car racing to the store to buy a new one....and yes, the cake was done on time.

I read somewhere (can't remember where!) that placing spearmint gum sticks (still in the wrappers) in your drawers and around where you have rice, noodles, flour, sugar, etc., would prevent bugs. I have placed spearmint gum every where in my kitchen and I don't have bugs of any kind. Of course I change the gum out about every couple of months, but I haven't had bugs since I started doing it. Can't remember why it's supposed to work so well, though, but it does.

Gerle that is too funny... I couldn't do that because my 5 year old is a gum freak! He would find and chew EVERY piece!

HaHaHaHa! Melvira and Anna, THAT is too funny. My boys are older and only the youngest (26) still lives at home so I don't have that problem. It's amazing what kids can figure out when they want something bad enough!

I thought I had it bad with the f#@*&+ spiders that pop up all over my kitchen. From teeny babies to biggies with the legs you can actually see the hairs on!! But we have a ravine in our backyard and there is no shortage of any kind of critters! But those spiders "bug" me the most...just can't get rid of them!

I once scraped a web out of a corner behind my TV and when I did, I had about 100 tiny, clear spiders run up my hand and arm. I am so glad there wasn't video, because I FREAKED OUT!!! I was spinning and jumping and flailing, and smacking at them while tearing my shirt off, lol!

HAHAHAHA! Oh em gee, Annabakescakes! Something similar happened to me once when I accidentally stepped on a spider and it was carrying an egg sac! I don't mind spiders that aren't venomous, I've even had a Pink-Toed Tarantula for a pet...but when I realized what had happened and that there were hundreds of little spider infants crawling up my leg (surely en route to eat my face), I FUH-REAKED! I'm sure if anyone saw me I would have looked ridiculous, seeing as how I couldn't even scream, I was just making these weird noises and flailing about!

I know what you mean. I absolutely HATE spiders! Can't stand to have them in the house at all! I don't even like finding them in the yard. There's some really ugly looking ones out there, too! We have a cabin up in the mountains that we don't have access to during the winter. When we re-open in the spring...there's tons of spiders up there! Even though we set off bug bombs when we close up in November (and we only set off about 12 of them throughout the entire cabin!!), we still have to set more off in the spring. Seems like they come out of the woodwork!

I never had this problem yet. But then I am a newbie. I buy my flour and sugar in 50 lbs, so I just make sure it is sealed tight. I do not have space to put in the refrigerator.

I don't know why, but I've never screamed in my life. If something scares me, I inhale really big and jump a little, but for some reason I've never screamed. Kinda weird....

Oh lordy... you guys have me cracking up!! Are we a bunch of girls or what?!?! hahahaha. I had a pet tarantula when I was a kid, but I can't stand daddy long legs spiders. Something about them just freaks me out! So does anyone have a guess as to what variety of bugs the bay leaves chase away? I know, I'm interrupting our fun with real questions!! I'll try to behave.

Annabakescakes, I am seriously sad that you DIDN'T have a video camera rolling when that happened. For as traumatic as those things are when they happen, you'd be ten thousand dollars richer from it! You'd totally win America's Funniest! I know what you guys mean about not being able to make sound... my mom went sonic when I told her I was pregnant with my first. Only dogs could hear her.

OMG that reminds Me about what happend to me 2 years ago, for some particular reason during that years monsoon season we had these HUUUUUGE beetle things coming out of no where, I HATE bugs (im getting the heebie jeebies as I type) they used to LOOOOVE to sit on my screen door so as I would open the door to go out and smoke I would be confronted with this huge beetle in my face and I would scream like you would not belive and then refuse to go outside LOL, well I started peeking out my door before I left the house at night well one particular night I didnt think to look UP. I proceeded outside to smoke and just as im about to go in I look at my door and there is a freaken beetle, I screamed jumped and ran UP the stairs and refused to come down (like that helped LOL these suckers could fly) my husband and my friend were laughing at me so much and all I could do was whine and cry about this beetle on my door, my husband finally saved the day and smacked it off the door and tried to kill it, I swear he hit it 10 times with his shoe and it was still moving that was the only year I saw them, I still get a little freaked during monsoons and have to check before I leave the house LOL

You guys are cracking me up with your spider stories.


I have one.
I used to be desperately afraid of spiders. I mean, phobic scared- shaking, panic stricken, hyperventilating scared. I've since conquered some of my fear due to the fact that I have a baby now and I didn't want her to be afraid of spiders simply because I was. I still hate them and get real freaked out by them.

Anyway, once I was trapped in my bathroom because there was a spider by the door. I couldn't make myself leave because it might jump at me or something. I must have been in there a good 15-20 minutes before I got enough courage to race to the door and get out.

Another time, (apparently my bathroom there was evil) I went into the bathroom to shower and there was a spider chilling on the wall of the shower. There was NO WAY I could get close enough to squish it and frankly, the idea of squishing it was awful because then I'd have to be close enough to pick it up and throw it away. (my husband used to tease me by chasing me with the dead spider.) Any way, I couldn't leave it now. If I did, god knew where it would be when I got back. Once spied, you have to kill it or it hides until you least expect it and a known hidden spider is far far worse than one you can see. My roommate wasn't home and my boyfriend wasn't there (went to a different college) so I had to be the one to get rid of it. So what to do what to do......eureka! My roommate was doing a project in which she had to make a poster board presentation. She needed spray glue. I took her spray glue and glued that mo-fo to the wall! I felt terrible leaving it there for her to get but I couldn't make myself try to clean it off.

Oh, good times.

OMG, one summer when I was visiting my grandma and grandpa's she made supper with a salad. We always had fresh salad from her garden. I will never forget the day when I found a grasshopper in my salad. I REFUSED to eat any salad from there on that came from her garden.

Oh Lord, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

OMG!!!!! I'm having a little break at work and am cracking up reading all your stories!!!! You guys are funny!!!

Thankfully, I've never had this issue with flour or sugar (and I don't keep them in sealed containers, I keep them in glass ones with glass lids) however, I've found larvae and little worms when I go to the store to buy boxes for my cakes!!!

I now open and check EVERY box to make sure they are clean! I can only imagine my clients opening their box to find a bug crawling on their cake!!!!! ugh!!!!!