Say What?

A day in the life . . .

‍

I was working hard at my desk when one of our residents phoned.

“Are the pest control people coming tomorrow?” he asked in a somewhat irritated tone.

After quickly consulting the calendar, I replied, “Yes, they’re scheduled to be here from one until

four. Since you live in Building II, your apartment will be one of the first homes they’ll treat. Are

there any issues I should make the pest control company aware of?”

“As a matter of fact, there are,” he answered. “Those guys need to clean the cobwebs out of the

halls in my building. After that, they need to spray the grass around the entire area. Me and

several of my neighbors are seeing a lot of those trigoniulus corallinus. They’re everywhere in

the halls, climbing up the walls and now we’re all seeing them inside our apartments.”

‍

Send In the Entomologist!

‍

I wasn’t about to admit that I had no idea what the guy was talking about. So, I played it cool

and said, “You’ve got it. How about you spell that out for me please?” I waited patiently while

he spelled out the name of the offensive pests that were apparently plaguing Building II. Of course,

as soon as I got off the call, I immediately googled trigoniulus corallinus. Turns out they’re

rusty-colored millipedes, sometimes called scarlet millipedes. Further research revealed that

the small, invertebrates are harmless, and some people actually keep them as pets.

(In case you’re now considering taking one in, they live up to 10 years with proper care)

Of course, after my quick lesson on these colorful anthropods, I took great pleasure in writing

up the request for our pest control guy. The look on his face was priceless as he studied the

work order. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when he finally shook his head and asked,

“What the heck is a trigoniulus corallinus?” Hey, in this crazy business, you’ve got to find

time for some fun, right?

‍

Austin

‍

‍

‍

‍

Monica E. Simmons, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for JDC Enterprises, LLC, has worked in the multi-family industry in several different capacities since 1987. She is a published author whose books include; I Have A Complex, But I’m Managing It!, It Happened in The Hill Country, 30-Love and it's sequel, Match Point.  

Contact her at: Monica@TheVendorGuide.com

‍