The flies were still out of control. It doesn’t get cold enough overnight here for them to go dormant overnight, so I had an awful night’s sleep with them constantly tickling me and buzzing in my ear. The next morning I opened every door in hopes that the nice breeze would turn my van into a wind tunnel and blow them all out. It would work for a minute or two, but they’d be back soon afterward, swarming and buzzing everywhere. It was at that point that I resigned myself to desperate measures.
“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Ripley, Aliens
I went to the Home Depot down the road and picked up a pack of insect bombs. These are the type you set up in a room of your house, then fog the heck out of the area to eliminate the pests. I read the box and instructions carefully to make sure there would be no harmful after-effects for myself and Lister, especially when using it in a smaller space than the average room in a house.
Next, I prepared to move out of the van for a few hours while it did its thing. I hitched Lister to the trailer and moved his food, water, and litter box outside. I grabbed my laptop bag and Jackery to power it and set up an office inside the trailer. Since temperatures would reach the low 90s, I also moved my refrigerator/freezer into the trailer. I was going to want cold drinks while locked out of my van on a hot day. I know from a previous test that my BougeRV power station can run the fridge for a full two days without needing a charge, so it would do just fine for an afternoon.
Then it was time. I closed the roof vent and turned off the fan. Due to the warnings against using the bomb in too small an area, like a closet, I decided to leave the vents in the front windows to release any excessive pressure that might build up. Then I pressed the tab, left the van, and shut the door. And then I held my breath while rushing back in to grab the smoke alarm that had started to go off in the fog. The instructions warned me to remove it first, and I’d meant to, but I forgot.
I left the van closed up and unoccupied for the next two hours. I got work done on my laptop in the trailer. It got me thinking that although an office space inside my van didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, maybe I should set one up in the trailer instead. With the bike outside, I basically already have it with one of my folding tables and a camp chair set up in its place. All I need is a strategically placed outlet or two to plug in my laptop, and maybe some USB ports for my phone, a fan, or whatever else. I may look into buying a solar panel to recharge the BougeRV power station, but I’ll also try recharging it off my van first. Lister spent most of the time sleeping on the cooler rocks under the trailer.
After two hours, the instructions say to open and ventilate the space for another two hours. I opened the side door and turned the roof vent and fan back on. Most household rooms don’t have a powerful fan like the Maxxair, so I probably didn’t have to wait the full two hours to move back into the van, but I did anyway, just to be safe.
At 5:00 p.m. I moved back in and fed Lister his dinner because it was time. I only used about 15% of the BougeRV power station’s juice. That’s a faster rate of usage than my previous test, but the fridge was having to work a lot harder on a 90º day in Nevada than on the 70º day in New Hampshire where I ran that test, and using more power as a result.
The bug bomb worked. The van is now blissfully fly-free. I slept well last night. I’ll have to update my article on this subject with the new info, but it seems a bug bomb can work as a last resort, which I desperately needed. Where I’m camped now is not infested with flies, so I should hopefully be able to avoid picking up another swarm. There are one or two buzzing around right now, probably local flies that flew in from outside, but one or two are normal. Hundreds of them are not.
Because I couldn’t leave Lister in a trailer with no ventilation, I didn’t leave camp yesterday except for the quick run into town to buy bug bombs. I lost the day to any and all other productivity because I was locked out of my home for several hours. That’s okay, though. I’m no longer on any kind of schedule, aside from the 14-day limit for camping here. I’m just starting my second full day, so I have time.
I got a message on YouTube yesterday from Rod, who I camped with in the HOWA caravan a year and a half ago, and randomly met at the Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff last September. He spotted me set up about 300 yards away from him. Now that I look carefully, I can see his trailer and Suburban parked out there. I’m not surprised, because he’s practically in the same spot as the HOWA caravan was when I camped with them, and likely will be again in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if my timing and travel will allow me to join the caravan, but I’ll at least go visit Rod later and catch up a bit. Welcome to nomad life, where you keep running into the same people over and over again.
Smokey Da Van 