A-Salter and Fly Pepper: Exterminators | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: A-Salter and Fly Pepper: Exterminators | Previous Challenge Entry
By Allison Egley
07/31/14
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My brother Tim walked into the house, holding a strange looking contraption. He held it out to me, grinning "Hey, Jill, check this out"

Though both adults, my brother and I still loved finding new and interesting things to show each other. I gave him a sideways glance. "What is that, or do I even want to know?"

"It's a fly assaulter."

"What? That thing doesn't look like it could assault much of anything, unless you're planning on drowning the fly. It looks like a glorified water gun."

"No, no." He walked over to the kitchen table and picked up the salt shaker. "Really it's more of a fly a-SALTer."

I studied the curious object for a moment, my eyes darting back and forth between the salt shaker and the fly assaulter. "So... you shoot the bug with salt? And that's supposed to kill it?"

Tim nodded. "Something like that."

"How in the world is a tiny bit of salt supposed to kill a fly?"

Well, too much salt can kill a person, and bugs are much smaller than people, so..."

I chuckled, as I turned the salt gun in my hands. "Either that, or it's like mini bullets. I want to try it."

Tim grabbed it from my hands. "Hey, I bought it, I get to try it first."

I threw up my hands in defeat. "Fair enough."

My brother loaded the gun with salt, then squinted and held it to his eye, looking for his first victim. The unfortunate fly met an untimely demise. At least for him. We high-fived each other.

I glanced down at the kitchen table, and tossed the pepper shaker, grinning. "Hey, they make pepper spray, and that's harmful to humans. Let's make a pepper sprayer for flies."

"Fly pepper."

I cocked my head. "Huh?"

"Fly paper. Fly pepper."

I waved my finger at Tim. "You're a clever one, you are. Should we try it?"

"Of course. Your idea, so you get the first shot."

I emptied the salt, reloaded the gun with pepper, and waited for my victim. Success. "Now this would be a fun science experiment. 'Which household spice is most lethal to flies?'"

"Nope. Wouldn't work. Too many variables." Tim counted off on his fingers. "Direct hit versus non-direct hit, toxicity of the substance itself to the fly, size of the fly, male versus female..."

I held a hand up in protest "Now wait just a second there. Do you really think you'd be docked points in a science fair for not checking the gender of a fly? How does one go about doing that, anyway?"

"Okay. So that one is stretching it a bit. But still. What's the control? How do you get a sufficient sample size without resorting to more traditional methods to control the fly population?"

I smiled. "What if the traditional fly swatter was the control? Or a shoe, for that matter."

My brother stroked his chin. "Interesting idea. But I still think any judge would, pardon the pun, shoot holes through this experiment."

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Okay. Okay. So maybe a traditional science experiment wouldn't work. But that doesn't mean we can't do it just for fun, right?"

Tim grinned. "Now you're talking. Let's try chili powder. That way they can feel the burn."

I rubbed my hands together, scheming. "Let's dye the salt green. That way it will look like bug guts." I paused for a second, then clapped my hands in excitement. "Oh, oh! I know. What if we got another one of these and started our own exterminator business?"

My brother laughed. "Now that's a plan. I could be 'A-Salter' and you could be 'Fly Pepper.'"

I shook my head in despair. "Wait a second. How old are we again?"

He shrugged. "Well, you know what they say. Growing old is mandatory."

I let out a cackle as I finished the saying. "Growing up is optional."

My brother placed his arm around my shoulder. "Let's never grow up."

"Take me away, Peter Pan. Take me away."

******************
Author's note:

Yes, such a product actually exists. I heard them talking about it on the morning show on my local Christian radio station. One of they DJs said something like, "What about pepper?" about the same time I was thinking the same thing, thus the inspiration for this story.

http://bugasalt.com/

Disclaimer: There is some explicit language on the "Fly Facts" page on the website, but I did want to give credit for the source of inspiration.

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