Kerio

Has anyone managed to remove these pests completely? They're in my kitchen cupboards (and occasionally my MBR) and I'm absolutely certain we have no mold because we've cleaned the kitchen cabinets with extremely strong concentrations of dettol and have a dehumidifier working OT there. For now, they're found in bigger numbers in my kitchen, and smaller numbers in my MBR, which is odd considering my MBR is almost always air-conditioned. They're not found in other rooms and I hope it stays that way until i eliminate all of them. Any suggestions?

It works, alright.. but a few points to note. First of all is that I don't actually have a mold problem in my house, more a booklice problem. 1) Since the indicator on the dehumidifier shows humidity at 30 after I've left it on for a while, I'm assuming it's working. Also, the amount of water collected in the water container is simply ASTOUNDING. Mine has a capacity of 8 litres, and after half a day out (12pm - 10pm), the container was near full. Same applies when I've left it on overnight, since humidity is constantly above 60 in Singapore. 2) although my machine technically covers 88sqm, I realised that when I place it in a wide open area, the humidity doesn't really go down much. In my tiny kitchen however, the humidity decreases rapidly because it's simply more efficient in an enclosed area. With this in mind, perhaps smaller, cheaper dehumidifiers that cover a smaller area instead of my massive $899 one would be just as effective in an enclosed room (e.g., one for every room with mold and mildew; perhaps a more powerful one for the living room). 3) Dehumidifiers aren't air-conditioners; I had this fantasy where my dehumidifier would blow out cold air and dehumidify at the same time, but that was not to be, because it expels warm air. This is made worse by the fact that it actually has a working temperature range of 16 - 35 degrees celsius, above or below which it would simply stop while the air around it heated/cooled. I had to leave the door slightly ajar and switch on the air-conditioning in the living room just to keep it at a steady 30 degrees. I had nightmares about my utilities bill and of the booklice migrating to my other rooms. And I've just discovered a magic formula - Rubbing Alcohol! I read about it on another post in RT, and when I chanced by it in a chinese pharmacy, I decided I had to give it a shot. I bought a little spray bottle, poured in the rubbing alcohol, and used it to spray the booklice. Result - they simply curled up and died. Non toxic and effective! Brilliant

No worries Nope, mine is just cold water since we very rarely use hot water for washing.. not sure about it not being durable, but it feels quite sturdy, so I think it should last us a good 5 - 10 years at least.. we hope

Latest update in spending! I've spent more than $1000 to fight the booklice problem, and I was actually quite resistant to purchasing any dehumidifiers because I didn't think we'd be using them as often (since our entire apartment, except the kitchen and toilets, is air-conditioned). However, after taking out all our kitchen ware and wiping the shelves clean with a strong concentrated dettol solution and drying it out properly yesterday night, I woke up this morning and found them sitting on the cleaned shelves, bold as brass. One literally came out of the woodwork and zipped back in, as if daring me to squash it. I waited for it to reappear, then squashed it, and blasted that entire area with Shieldtox. Then during lunch just now (I can't even remember how many lunches I've already skipped for "rectifications" and to deal with this booklice nonsense), went by to Best Denki and purchased this: "NOVITA Dehumidifier ND 690 Powerful & Effectual NOVITA Dehumidifier ND 690 is the largest capacity unit in the range that efficiently removes up to 50 litres of water per day. Covering areas up to 900 sq ft or 83 m2, it is ideal for use in spacious areas of the home and also for industrial use. Equipped with an electronic LCD display, ND 690 is easy to operate with just a simple touch on the soft key. You will also be delighted with other features like the convenient easy-roll castors, in-built pre-filter screen and continuous drainage option. With the powerful & effectual ND 690, excessive moisture will never be a problem again! " At $899 for one set (already discounted, original price $999), moisture better not be a problem again. I'm going to switch this on tonight, closed up in my tiny kitchen, and shrivel those little b*stards up into powder.

Hi, We got it from a shop our ID brought us to, think the name is automatically censored once i type it down here. The sink mixer is the P8000 model, cost us around $300+. Has 2 functions; a single stream/jet of water and a "rain shower" of water. I think I saw it at Hoe Kee and Poh Seng as well, though I can't remember the price

Received and Replied :-)

Hi Porkypork, My living room air con is a 24BTU, so it's definitely powerful enough Recently, because of the booklice infestation reaching into our kitchen, I've had to open the kitchen glass door and use a tower fan to blow into the kitchen to reduce moisture, so the air con is even strong enough to reach the kitchen if you do it that way. We experienced no loss in cooling capacity in the living area. However, the dining area doesn't get as much of the cooling as we'd like (though it's still cool, it's not as cool). We recently had 30 visitors over for Christmas, and had to switch on all of our air-cons; the whole house was sufficiently cooled, though the tower fan had to be on and sweeping the dining area due to its proximity to the kitchen and its heat

I also suspect the wall can't be hacked, though I'm not sure too.. The service yard wall is actually quite small, and there're pipes in and behind the wall (the door to the service yard is to the left for our apt) which might affect hacking, too.

Which part of the living room? Here's a pic of the kitchen though: As you can see, the left side is the sink, the centre is the hob/hood, the right is the dry area for a small toaster, rice cooker, air port, etc. The sink was supposed to be where the hob/hood is now, and the hob/hood is supposed to be where the dry area is now. We extended the area to create the dry area, initially for baking or the like, but it appears that the area is a little too cramped for that. We're still working on organising the kitchen, but unless we invest in space saving things like mounting things on the wall, it's a bit hard to get any useable space. I think the air con is actually slightly below the pelmet, so there's still some space to handle the air con.. at least, I think so, since I haven't tried it yet hahaha.. still handling the booklice issue =.='''

Because we extended the kitchen countertop out (from a L-shape to a U-shape) and therefore changed the location of the sink, the dish rack was changed to between the windows as well, which is slightly to the right of the sink. The space is really quite small, so my advice is to go for the wall mounted ones and don't put anything on the countertop as much as possible; or maybe you can consider the double-tiered dish racks to save some space. Despite us extending the countertop, we still find it hard to find space to do anything at all, even food preparation!

Thanks Porkypork! I've used some anti-mould spray (very foamy, not really suited for the pipes) and a lot of insecticide, and it seems to have worked for the MBR for now - not a single critter spotted so far! But now some of them have migrated into the kitchen, which is unfortunately always humid because it's not air-conditioned and we cook there. The unfortunate thing is that they feed on starchy things like flour and even plastering (and I presume, rice and pasta), which means I've had to put all my flour in the fridge and zip my rice and pasta up in ziplock bags, not to mention purchase lots of dehumidifiers. I really hope this is not something that's affecting all our neighbours as well, because I've never had this issue back in my old house, which can only mean that the infestation was already pre-existing in the block prior to us moving in. Wonder where they originate from? I haven't tried a hairdryer, but that's a good suggestion! I'll go try it today and see how.. a lot of cupboards to dry if that's the case. I think they live in the wooden chips used in the construction of the cupboards, so it's a bit hard to eliminate all of them. The most effective way I've heard so far is a complete bug-bombing, but even after that they return after a few weeks. I'm going to constantly fight these little critters until there's not a single one left in my house! On a separate note, Housewarming cum Christmas party was a relative success! Most of my in-laws liked the design, feel and colors we chose, though there were some remarks (same as previous) of the feature wall being dirty, and the lack of lights along the corridor showed very bad planning. Some also commented on the feature walls in the Living Room and MBR reflecting bad planning because the wires were all hanging out. My mother-in-law, in particular, was rather angry about it because she felt that the whole point of the feature wall was to hide wires, and if wires couldn't be fitted properly into the feature wall, the wall in essence becomes completely useless. Also, some of our relatives were almost jolted off their seats when the kitchen cabinet at the entrance of the kitchen slammed onto the kitchen glass wall. Since the angle for opening doesn't seem to be something that was well conceived, I've resorted to buying little rubber shock absorbers from Daiso to stick on the cupboards so they don't slam all over. The ID actually told me that I had told her there were no HI-FIs or DVD players in the MBR, hence the hole she got the carpenters to cut didn't cater for the Soundbar we got. I didn't really comment on it, but we actually DID tell her about it. In fact, we explicitly mentioned to her that there was a soundbar in the MBR and a Hi-Fi in the Living Room, and she initially told us she'd make a shelf for us to place the soundbar. Evidently, it was forgotten. Our dish rack was also forgotten, so she removed it from the final quotation. No complaints there, though we would have liked to have a proper hanging dish rack. To put things in perspective, we did manage to get our handover on the 10th, though rectifications are taking slightly longer because of its the year end, plus the workers do minor and frequently incomplete touch ups everytime they come by. The door guys, for instance, have come by 3 times - once to see to the door being too tall hence scrapping the top laminate off (I just told them to cut off the extra laminate since it can't be seen), once to touch up and remove paint stains on the door, and once more to see to the areas around the hinges being very badly cut - and this is yet to be resolved. Our living room counter-top solid surface and kitchen solid surfaces are also dull and not glossy at all, and the guy just came by with a bottle of Pledge and a cloth, sprayed and wiped and said it was done. One day later, the solid surface was dull again. One wonders why they can't scrutinize their own work, find out if it's done to their standards and fix the areas that need fixing without our prompting and reminding. Apparently they take no pride whatsoever in their product. But that's fine, because everyone that comes by to see our place can make that judgement call themselves, so I guess that's the best testimonial of their work. If it's bad and everyone can see it, too bad for them, right?

Mine don't jump so far, but they crawl (some are fast, some are pathetically slow); and yes, they're brown and about 0.5 - 1mm! I found the mould on the air-con pipes on the air con ledge, but I've gotten rid of them and got the air-con guys to seal up the pipes as much as possible - hopefully that'll keep them out for now. So far I seem to have done a pretty ok job, but I think some of the mould is on the air con pipes within the air-con casings.. so not sure if there's anyway to exterminate them if they're congregating there. I really do hope not. I also found some of them in the kitchen cupboards yesterday, apparently attracted by flour (which they also feed on); I scoured through the cabinets and I think some of them may be hiding in the cupboards now, since it's essentially made of wood. I also read they're gotten rid of by dehumidifying the place, so I've kept the air-con on dehumidify mode for a good 15 hours the day before and another 6 hours or so yesterday (I have a feeling the electric bills are going to make me physically ill). The thing is, the air-con in my MBR is also usually on, but those critters still survive! In fact, when I first found some of them crawling around my walls, the air con was on full blast - so I'm not sure if that really works. But for posterity's sake, I'm just going to try drying everything up as much as possible and see what happens.

Thanks Reiki! I really hope so too! They are trained to do it, so they cost a lot more! Dogs have noses that can detect even the tiniest of smells, so it's probably just about rewarding him for catching the right smell Haiz, I thought so too! But since these insects are attracted to mould and zoomed in on my apartment's aircon ledge with the mouldy pipes, that must mean someone else has them too, and to a worse extent.. Spotted 2 on the air-con trunking yesterday, and another one in the toilet - hopefully Aron's guy will come by after working hours to have it settled (Since I'm out of leave, and I don't know if they can settle everything within lunch hours). I hate the thought of sleeping with creepy crawlies all over the walls! My dog isn't coming with me Cos the missus doesn't like dog hairs all over the place, and I can understand la. Plus, when we're not in, the dog might be whining and barking and disturb the neighbours..

Thanks Jan! I did a rather thorough job yesterday, it seems! From my research, booklice feed on starchy things like flour, as well as mould, so if we get rid of the mould, we get rid of the booklice. I went sourcing for it yesterday, and at the peril of killing myself with insecticide, sprayed all the areas below the air con trunking, sprayed the trunking (and cleaned off the visible residues), even doing the sealing for gaps in the trunkings that I could see. Then I opened the aircon ledge window, and sprayed the exposed mouldy pipes with insecticide like Arnold Schwarzenegger with his chaingun in Terminator ("Grraaaaaaaaaa" *everything in his path dies*). For the rest of yesterday night, I didn't spot a single booklice, and when I went back during lunch just now to have the pest exterminator do his beagle survey for bed bugs, I didn't spot a single booklice as well. Mission accomplished. The beagle survey by Origin was essentially to check for bed bugs since we used to have a problem in the old house; and after $160 and about 10 minutes, I'm happy to report we're bed bug free and apparently book lice free as well. I also think my recent grouchiness may have something to do with me missing my Jack Russell back at my mother's home, because I feel a lot better after seeing and petting a dog. Canine Therapy. Beagle at work. Super hyper! The handler explained that they had brought him to attend to a hotel just recently, and had let him loose to scour the rooms, so he was still a little hyper. He also told me that the beagle had brought him to another house recently where the owners had brought their old furniture along, and although free of bedbugs, had a bed that was infested with bedbug eggs. The beagle also managed to spot a bedbug at that house. Imagine that - one bedbug! Its nose is super sharp. The shirt says "Working Dog, Do not pet". I petted it after it did it's job though.

Been a little busy the past few days; first to stock up for a Christmas party, then buying an additional piece of furniture because the MBR feature wall hole wasn't big enough for all the wires and the soundbar was on the floor, then to top off my sian-ness, we got a booklice infection because of the mould growing on the air con piping outside. Was up till 4am the night before, checking to see if it was a bedbug infection and smacking the little critters on the walls. Yesterday, spent around $50 buying extermination equipment (dehumidifiers, non-odour insecticide, Selley's "no more gaps", because the booklice were entering through the gaps in the trunking etc), and have to spend an additional $160 today to get this bug-detection dog to come sniff around to confirm I did a thorough job. If I didn't, I'm looking at more than $800 damage to fumigate the house twice to remove any and all infestations. Also contacted air-con guys to come down urgently to replace the mouldy pipes and rectify the plastering because there was a dam*ned big hole in my WIW (where the aircon ledge is) which wasn't covered properly, and the tiny critters were crawling in from there as well. Technically, they're harmless creatures because they don't suck blood or do anything except crawl all over the place, but when you have a new house and fresh white walls, the last thing you want to see would be tiny insects crawling all over the walls and God forbid, all over our clothes. Was UBER sian yesterday and was telling my friend that with all the problems arising in my house, I almost feel like giving up the house and letting someone else buy it, then starting afresh somewhere else because I seriously feel like I can't enjoy the house at all. And there're so many minor defects that never seem to be resolved! I've already spent ALL my leave, and I still need to rush back during lunch later to see to the bug detection dog. Not to mention the guy repairing the door will only be in on Friday, a silicon gel stain is STILL on my toilet sink despite me telling the solid surface guy when he came by, the dining solid surface has to be constantly polished with Pledge (which I purchased myself) or it stains like a b*tch, and after polishing it's oily and stains even faster, the kitchen solid surface is dull (not sure if it's supposed to be Matt. Is there such a thing as a matt solid surface?), the kitchen cabinet doors swing wide open and hit just about everything - the opposite doors, the glass panels etc; and we still have loads of cleaning to do before the actual Christmas event. To be fair, we have not alerted the ID to these issues as she is away on leave; and she's already done as much as she could, so we'll have to tell her after Christmas. At least these issues won't be too massive to handle for now.. though the prospect of my brand new house being subject to any kind of bug infestation pisses me off.

Yeah, we like the open concept too! But we're not keen on the kitchen smells and heat permeating all our furniture, hence the glass. Turns out, it actually doesn't help much leh, cos the smells still fill the entire house. We paid $650 for hacking, and $1350 for the glass panel and glass casement doors

Hi, the bomb shelter feature wall is actually quite large because instead of the typical sliding door, we went for a tic-tac door. The space between the feature wall door and the bomb shelter door is quite large - enough to fit a person. The side area (near the main door) is actually a shoe cabinet with tic-tac doors. The whole setup cost me about 1.8k; and that's considering it's actually made with MBF board (which is supposedly cheaper). Originally there were some issues with the tic-tac function (i.e. it didn't work) but it was settled by our ID. The TV feature wall also cost me 1.8k, though there're some stains that can't be washed off with water and some of my relatives were commenting that it looked dirty because of all the patches. I'll probably need to try some turpentine or thinner later today. Also, the drawers are a bit funny - one is the normal pull in and out type, the other two are basically holes in the feature wall - the doors open outward like garage doors and can be pushed in. Without the feature wall, it actually looks alright - if you paint it a different color, it's actually ok by itself.. I guess it's subject to personal preferences? We actually were considering just getting a console table for that, though we were very taken by the final design so we went for it :-) Now to see if we can clean off the stains...

Nice! I was eyeing the same sink, but I wanted a translucent or glass one.. too bad the store we went to overpriced those sinks so we went for the white ones My wife liked the same tap! But I was visualizing this gory image of me slipping and falling forward, and the tap putting out my eye =.='''' In the end, we went for a horizontal bar one hahaha

Ya lor! Still a lot of touching up etc to be done; so hopefully the main things can be up by Saturday (including the polishing of the Bar Counter), and then we can look through everything, confirm if there're any more rectifications, and settle payment by the last week of the year. So far it's been making sure the things that are supposed to be in (e.g. steel legs for bar counter) are in. First few days were hectic and boring - no TV, no cooking (until just this Tuesday), just cleaning cleaning cleaning. Then a damaged tile was changed and it's cleaning cleaning cleaning cleaning because of the fine dust that got everywhere and simply couldn't be vacuumed up. Regarding the grouting; I yhink I'll need to get the HDB guys to come by to take a look if possible; the grouting is all but gone from the tiles, for some reason. I'll see if I can put up a picture late tonight :-) In addition, water pressure is horribly low; so I've contacted the Town Council to check it out.

Ha, ya, super ex! Still got mirror haven't come in, will be done on Friday Thanks guys! Not quite finish line yet, but this would be equivalent to the high-speed camera taking pictures of the runner reaching the finish line! Hopefully by Saturday we can publish completed pics!

NICE! Very interesting positioning of the cove lighting, and *snickers* I told you so :3 My Guest room and Study room have 4 LED downlights, like your study room; I think the rooms won't be that bad since you can always put a table lamp on the study table (or guest table, if you have one) which will help illuminate and add some style to it But I have to say, the rooms look really dark at night, especially if you use darker shades of paint.. my maroon colored study room is a good example =.='''

Haha.. there wasn't any wine unless you include Shaoxing Wine for cooking I think the main culprits for the high prices are really some pillows we bought, the detergents (for washing plates, clothes), the shower items and the oils. Olive Oil and Sesame Oil - Very Expensive. Shaoxing wine also cost me a good $17.5 -.- The rest of the nitty gritties like butter, cheese, juices etc - all add up eventually. All the items that need to be stocked up just to make a place liveable really cost a bomb the first time round, and I was expecting it (more or less), but the $500 I budgeted was actually for groceries for the month of December (not including Christmas)! Looks like it's going to be cereals and milk, bread and drippings until the next payday Thanks Froggy!! Yes, the tv feature wall cost me 1.8k! And a few defects here and there (can still see some white lines at the edges where the laminates join, and some marks which we can't remove), but the carpenters will be coming by this afternoon to see to the issues. Hopefully this will be the last trip required of them! Thanks fifteenmay! The lightings points are a bit lacking actually; the corridor leading to the room is quite literally un-lit throughout.. cosy in the day but really creepy at night T-T More pics to be shared when we finish unpacking!

Hehe thanks porkypork! Yeah, moved in le - a few things like glass backing for wall not up yet, and the stainless steel legs for the bar counter not up yet (up on Monday); but otherwise are some minor aesthetic and functional rectifications like some rust spots in the sink, some stains on living room feature wall and glass for feature wall not up etc; and of course some stains and smudging here and there we're getting the ID to fix, but otherwise ok le:) Thanks jan!! we just went for our very first grocery shopping trip to stock up, spent $500 and only purchased lots and lots of condiments, sauces and tinned goods but no perishables yet since hob may not be fully functional yet.. It's no joke lugging various bottles with oil and sauces and so on out of the taxi!

Thanks! yup, it's a White one; I was thinking of a stainless steel one initially, which, strangely enough, is cheaper.. And I think nicer, but wife liked the White one haha.. The glass guy came by only on the 10th to measure it, and he told me it'd take a week to fabricate it! have to get a aluminium one to stand by first.. Anyway, I forgot to make the second appointment for the gas amidst all the chaos, so Tuesday then it'll be up -..- Haha, so maybe I should have gone for the T-leg! Some more 3 would do it for the table, as opposed to 6 for the A-leg -..- The ikea guy at least packed all the parts to be assembled into very neat stacks so I'd know what to put where, though his was later messed up by the electrician when he was looking for wires to be boxed up, haiz. Going to get the A legs later!

Haha, the galant table is really complicated to purchase, especially when extensions are involved! When the ikea guy was explaining it to me, I just nodded and spaced out. Good thing there's an instruction manual:D Is the T leg better? I was under the impression the A legs could hold more weight?