Dilemma

[muninnhuginn]

The ravens promised to bake cakes for the weekend. But, there's a moth-like insect calmly sleeping on the handle of one of the sharp knives in the knife block.

Having made that discovery, fortunately after lunch was over and done with, what the ravens want to do is vacate the house, or at the very least shut ourselves upstairs, until said moth (we're assuming the worst, until contrary evidence is provided) has been removed. (Note: we don't insist on its demise, just its disappearance: disappearance down a feline gullet wouldn't trouble us unduly.)

Baking cakes entails using the Kenwood Chef just along the counter from the moth. It's noisy and vibrates (the mixer, not the moth as far as we know). The intruder might be disturbed. The ravens certainly are.

Maternal duty to provide cakes for Looby Loo's best friend versus bloody stupid, embarrassing, but all too real phobia of moths (and butterflies).

Horns of a dilemma? Nope. This one's got wings.

L'enfer, c'est les papillons. Shiver.

Comments

*HUGS*

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Two future options, depending on how severe your phobia is:

1) a bloody great water pistol (super soaker or similar), blast the bug and *then* run away (as it's unlikely to be smooshed by the water) ... gives you a chance to turn your flight into a fight reflex for a short while and may start to embolden you in the war against the wing-ed foe

2) there are "humane" insect traps, that look a bit like a tupperware box on the end of a pole (with a sliding cover that's operated from your end of the pole) ... you put the box over the offending insect/bug, slide the cover shut (from a safe distance, either chopping off small bits of the bug or capturing it inside) and then you run with the box to a window or open door and stick the pole outside and pull back on the release and wave it like mad while trying not to look at it and praying that the insect won't immediately fly out and back in through the window/door or stick to the inside of the box. Of course you could just bodily throw the entire pole/box out the window/door and ask someone else to go out and empty it (probably Looby Loo could do *that* unless she's picked up your phobia)

Do you dread to touch the place that the moth had landed? Will you need to scrub that knife now (while wearing protective devices) until all hint of moth is gone? Or is it just the presence of that driver of unreasoning fear that's the problem?

Re: *HUGS*

[muninnhuginn]

Don't think LL has picked up the phobia--she independently seems to fear spiders, which we love (we are the substitute for the humane trap there since we quite happily handle arachnids)--and third generation inherited/learned phobia would be getting silly. Yup, the raven's mother was scared of moths, not particularly butterflies, and bats (we love bats, so does LL). But she wasn't scared of daddy-long-legs either. Ugh!

Won't have to disinfect ar anything. It's not that kind of fear, more the fluttering in face kind.

The raven's Room 101 would almost certainly be confined (really quite small, like say, our kitchen) space with moths fluttering in front of their face. Rats? No problem, Winston.

I'm working on the assumption that eventually one of the felines will disturb it and between the two of them they'll dispatch it. Though two together failed to get a spider over a period of days, very entertainingly. So they're no great shakes at this hunting business.

Never had a nightmare about a moth. Unlike, say, about heights. (That's a partially learned fear too.)

Nah, it's all ludicrous. And not having cakes is unthinkable. Ignore it. Happy to let the programmed killers to have a go, if they ever bestir themselves, idle beasts. The ravens prefer to leave well alone, unless actually attacked (it wouldn't would it).