Last week I had interaction with House flies and Cobra at campus – both left me wondering “what else?” I have been thinking about mosquitoes at I-campus and thinking can we try “what else?”
In both the interactions kids were part, sometimes passively, some times actively. They were around and involved in many ways. Till yesterday, I was only aware of pest control for pest, but the experience gave me exposure of many different ways.
It began with few house flies and then many and then hundreds of them in the kitchen. It became very difficult to even stand in the kitchen, the worry of hygiene was hanging on the head.
The first thought was to use medicine (pest control) to get rid, second thought was to understand their behavior and go deeper in the subject.
I decided to go deeper – found out about why, how, where, what else. After all researched, i understood that they get repelled with some peculiar smells. We tired what was possible – beginning with burning neem leaves, agarbatti, dhoop, eucalyptus oil, boiling vinegar…………….nothing seems to be working. The anxiety grew bigger, but still the thought of using chemicals for pest control was not convincing. One of the parent who was also at campus, joined me in my struggle. We made fly trap and tried all possible material.
Kids joined me in cleaning every corner of the kitchen – we washed, wiped, rubbed……….and flies were back within few minutes. I worked with various material for two days, then went to Bangaloe, After two days when I entered the kitchen, I saw vey few flies in the kitchen.
The smells of various material was still in the air in the kitchen.
Yes!!! it worked
But what???
I guess,
Perseverance
Patience and
Prey!
It was not over here, the next day we spotted one spectacled cobra inside our resource room. We have sighted in the last 3-4 weeks the spectacled cobra 3-4 time around our building (don’t know if its the same one – though it looks like that (by size and colour)
First we left him alone for one hour and did not budge from his place behind the box. After an hour we tapped with a stick a little distance from it and in about an hour it finally came out of the door and positioned under a shelf outside under a cuddapah stone shelf (the second picture).
It stayed here for about 2hours in a coil. The he moved to another place with when we removed a bucket near him and again coiled amongst some bamboos poles near by. He finally vanished after another half an hour.
I am back to “what else”? So, I showed no panic, move 10 steps back, not disturb, did everything I have been going through training in safety club…………..but what else I do to live with Cobra around me? Exploring more, want to know from people who are living in similar terrain and co-exist.
Learning to learn “what else?”