When the outdoors comes in

[Antisocial_Worker]

It's a big topic on my mind right now: how does nature invade your workplace? And I'm thinking about it because here at the Dreadful Inn, the laundry room has a door that opens directly onto the outside, and the housekeepers leave that door open most of the day as they go in and out on their duties. This lets in flies and gnats. About half an hour ago, a gnat flew directly up my left nostril. This caused me to let loose with a herky-jerky dance behind the front desk that involved much snorting, trying to dislodge it.

It also caused me to think back to times when Mother Nature checked in, mostly at the Blah Inn where everyone here used to work. I've had to chase down lizards in guest rooms, as well as kill a snake in the back staircase -- while wearing a tie. I also rescued two kittens, one of them vicious (it bit me), from the dryer exhaust vent. The parking lot was patrolled by stray cats, and I've heard that since we left they've had a problem with a traveling snake roaming from room to room in the ceiling. For the longest time in the lobby there was a problem caused by water running down inside the walls, which caused mushrooms and shelf fungi to sprout on the baseboard, and it also let in slugs. It took us about four tries to finally fix it, too.

Who else cares to share?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Well, we once got a bird in the store...it flew around a bit, staying near the ceiling, and eventually found its way back out the door.

Store1 has a problem with the roof leaking when there is heavy rain or a lot of snow. The roof is flat so the water just sits there and there are a few spots that are apparently weak. More than once they have had to clear the books off two entire bays (back to back in 2 adjacent aisles) and cover them with plastic sheeting and put buckets on top. There are a couple other places in the store that occasionally get covered with plastic but they haven't had to remove all the books, to my knowledge.

Store2 used to (well, maybe still does) get these little millipede-looking things in the summer...they would mostly congregate near the back emergency exit but they would make their way out into the store too and you kinda had to watch where you were walking. One year it got to the point where I was afraid to sit on the floor (which is probably not an unreasonable fear under normal circumstances, anyway, now that I think about it).

Flies would sometimes be a problem in the "kitchen" behind the cafe (fridge, freezer, sink, dishwasher, and storage for Godiva, bottled drinks, the soda fountain syrup dispenser, and cleaning supplies). The kitchen connects the cafe to Receiving, and that end is less than 10 feet from the Receiving door to the outside where the dumpsters are. The door from Receiving to the kitchen is often left open because it is heavy and a little difficult sometimes but when flies start getting in they have to close it.

On windy fall days the vestibule sometimes gets a ton of leaves blown in.

And one time there was a piece of some kind of tree or bush that got blown into the store on a windy day. It looked kinda like a small tumbleweed, maybe 10 inches or so. One day I was up front and it was really, really dead in the store. Someone opened the door and this thing blew from the magazines to the cashwrap across the rug just inside the door. I felt like I was in a really boring Western.

[Zinjadu]

Well. . .

We have 2 sets of doors that open onto the mall parking lot, as well as the parcel-pickup doors that open onto same parking lot.

4 years ago when there were a ton of grasshoppers everywhere, the parcel-pickup area was full of them and they were hopping into the store. They were also clinging to the walls and windows in parcel. I hate 'hoppers, so I was totally freaked out!

Other interesting things we've had: a bat in the store, a pigeon in the back room, voles in the back room.

Apart from that, we usually just get flies, and occasionally bees and wasps.

[Sofar]

Ooh, nature gets everywhere around here. The fauna ain't much of a problem, but the flora is. The back of our building is covered in ivy, which keeps trying to creep in through the heavily damaged frame of our back window. Tree roots are breaching our basement walls, and there really ain't much we can do about that besides prune them. The ivy gets into our attic too, and we don't go up there that much so it's usually pretty advanced by the time we clear it out every month or so. And I'm all like, stupid plant! There is no light in here!

There are also ferns growing in the rotten frame of the skylight in our back room. Ferns. Taking root in the crumbling wood, inside the building. We pull them out and more sprout. I went on the roof one day and discovered there were ferns growing everywhere, along with wide patches of grass. It was like that on everyone else's rooves too. And we get moss growing on the floor underneath where ever the roof is leaking, especially in the basement. Moss is growing inside.

And this isn't really indoors, but if I don't wash my car every few months it grows moss too.

[Becks]

Let's see...

Birds flying into the store.

Ducks, possums and other wildlife coming through the automatic doors.

Occasional roaches by the dishwasher, due to leaky hoses (or so the story goes).

People bringing their pets in, even though they aren't in any way, shape or form handicapped and it's a GROCERY STORE. (It's fun watching the cops tell the people to leave their animals outside.)

Mice in the grocery receiving area.

Fruit and house flies hanging out in produce.

Massively HUGE grasshoppers, crickets, mosquitos and spiders in the imported produce.

A few leaks in the ceiling when it rains hard enough.

I think I'll end this now.

[digilight]

Nothing at the shop (either this location or the previous) while we did have a phsyco suicidal bird that used to spend all day for weeks just pecking at the window, and flying against it.

At the summer camp (remember san bernadino mountains) though we had it all.

Bats, on several occasions in both the mainlodge/kitchen building and some of the cabins.
Tarantialas, around camp and in some of the cabins.
fire ants
birds
Deer, only came up to the door
Bears, Only came within about 10 feet of the door
Mice and Rats
and Campers Parents (they could be pesky if not delt with immediatly )

and my parents had a problem with opossums in their den for a while.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It sure did when I was a Production Coordinator for NatureScene.

We would be standing in a cloud of mosquitos, smelling of sweat, deet, funk, and dead fish, driving around in a van filled with fossils, live snakes, and roadkill, and go back to hotel rooms that had dead snakes coiled up in the bar refridgerators.

The housekeepers refused to go into our rooms sometimes.

Ah. Those were the days.

[Elf]

In my office? Mice seem to be an issue. It's no wonder with two specific coworkers who like to leave food laying out overnight at their desks. (Hello!! Open jar of peanut butter is not good!!)

Other than that we have some flies that buzz around and gnats but the worst was the attack of the chiggers. I swear it looked like I had chicken pox from the knee down.