They might not be exterminators. They might be burglars.

Via The Missus.

HELP!!! Does anyone know a company or individual who can identify and spray to destroy poison ivy? This is the 4th time I've caught it since May, and I am ready to just concrete my whole yard in West Roxbury & paint it green (there goes the neighborhood!!)....I have searched the internet to no avail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Carolyn, who stocked her rain barrel with goldfish to keep mosquitoes at bay, has also turned wormy. She reports on her efforts at vermicomposting (bonus fun fact: You know that vermicelli you love? Guess what "vermicelli" means in Italian?). She snagged a bunch of worms from an online retailer, after first digging up what turned out to be the wrong kind of worms from her garden when her son, surprisingly, refused to do so. Her report is complete with wormy photos.

Carolyn reports that when she got a rain barrel to collect water for a vegetable garden, she had to figure out how to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in it. And rather than use chemicals or BT, she invested in some goldfish, figuring they would eat any mosquito larvae:

... This has worked really well. The fish, which were previously designated as food for larger pet fish, have 55 gallons of space, both fresh bugs and dried fish food for dinner, and no predators. It's a bit boring in there, but I'm guessing it's suitable for a fish-style attention span. They've grown appreciably in the past couple of months. I think they're happy. At least they haven't complained. Or died. Yet. ...

David Prior reports what happens when one of your dogs gets loose and decides to go after a skunk, which does what skunks do, after which the dog runs right into the house. You know it's pretty bad when National Grid shows up because the downstairs neighbor called to report what he thought was a gas leak.

Maybe the guy just couldn't wait to get inside and the front porch was oh so convenient:

... To Nick's great relief, the man was wearing underwear, but his relief was quickly replaced by horror as the man whipped himself out of his briefs and proceeded to pee off the front porch in broad daylight. ...

Are rarely a good thing, especially when one of them forces his way into your place.

Mance01 reports her apartment is overrun by like a million baby spiders:

... So, I'm sitting on the couch, holding a can of bug spray, jumping a mile everytime a strand of hair brushes my shoulder. And my foot itches. I assume it's a spider bite.

So, if I disappear for another month, it's probably a safe bet that I'm cocooned somewhere in the house. Send help.

Brad Kayal lives on Sutherland Road in Brighton, which, you may recall, is where several thousand gallons of mineral oil leaked out of an Nstar electrical conduit this past Thursday and wound up in the Muddy River on the other side of Brookline.

Kayal took the photos here to show what the street has been like since that incident. He writes:

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wonder what it's like to live in a strip mine?"

If so, I welcome anyone to swap apartments with me because since that pipe/conduit/whatever broke and leaked all that oil over a week ago Sutherland Rd. in Brighton has become one impressive construction operation. They've dug 15' holes up and down the block, erected wood shacks (that they're pumping nitrogen into), rented themselves some tents, got some cranes, dumpsters, port-a-johns, and they have been working non-stop , around the clock, since last Thursday.