OT: Just to keep me from fretting for the weekend

[SadieKate]

Any exterminators/builders/entomologists/pestologists/critterologists on the forum?

I just found this thing adorning the bathroom ceiling in the house we just moved into (house is less than 4 years old). I can't get someone here with a tall enough ladder until Sunday so in the meantime I'm fretting about all the things it could be. The picture isn't good but the "The Thing" is bright white against an off-white painted wall. It's about 3-4 inches wide. There was some discussion whether the previous owner's grandkids threw wet TP up there but it doesn't look right. A nest of some kind?

Feel free to make up stories to entertain me while I imagine the worst. Also, just discovered that a pair of flickers is enjoying my attic but I'm less worried about them than The Thing.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Critter/IMG_0655.jpg

[OldDog]

A baby Serotta incubating, hatching in time for Christmas?

[zeroking17]

Looks like some kind of spider or insect cocoon. We have similar ones in our house, and they typically belong to some type of harmless spider.

You could keep an eye on it to see what emerges or, if it really makes you uneasy, get a long-handled tool (shovel, hoe, yardstick, etc.) and gently remove it.

ps It could also be a wad of toilet paper, as you mention. However, this possibility raises more questions than it answers.


Edit: Added photo of me removing one of the cocoons from our house.

[swoop]

is there a string coming out of one of the ends?

[chuckred]

it sure doesn't look anything like the termite evidence/damage I saw in my house in Philly as shown by an exterminator. Termites are in the wood where you can't see them and as far as I know, their larvae are burrowed in. CAn't imaging they'd be out in the open on dry wall.

At least it doesn't seem like your house will crumble over the weekend...

[david]

is there a string coming out of one of the ends?

dude, you are ON today.

[SadieKate]

is there a string coming out of one of the ends?I'm laughing and nauseated at the same time.

[swoop]

I'm laughing and nauseated at the same time.


some tampons try and escape before being put into service. its the conscientious objector of the feminine hygiene army. they are masterful at the dark ninja arts of camouflage and not to be trusted. be careful.

[e-RICHIE]

some tampons try and escape before being put into service. its the conscientious objector of the feminine hygiene army.
the red army atmo -

[CNY rider]

the red army atmo -

Better on the bathroom ceiling than red I guess....

[zeroking17]

the red army atmo -


PM sent.

[swoop]

PM sent.

PMS?

[zeroking17]

PMS?

PM Scent

[SWorks4me]

if you had teenage sons...i would be watching what kind of reading material they were taking into the bathroom with them.

[H.Frank Beshear]

Poke it with a stick. Gently if it eats the stick I'd leave it alone :D . I'm at work and the res on the monitor isn't great but it looks like spray foam for insulation and sealing cracks. If someone used too much it could expand and look like that. Try the stick first though.

[SadieKate]

A baby Serotta? Maybe I should fashion a net a la a gourd farmer. Wouldn't want it to get bruised upon hatching.

[SadieKate]

Poke it with a stick. Gently if it eats the stick I'd leave it alone :D . I'm at work and the res on the monitor isn't great but it looks like spray foam for insulation and sealing cracks. If someone used too much it could expand and look like that. Try the stick first though.This was my first guess but it was added after the wall was painted and the construction of this house is high enough quality that the builder wouldn't have done this after the fact. And the previous owner was an idiot and didn't do anything except put a nail and bulldog into every piece of straight grain douglas fir she could find in the house. She must have had garlands and knick-knacks for 6 houses strung inside and out. Fun times ahead with wood filler.

Something tells me that I won't make it until Sunday without finding a long inedible stick. What was that about "curiosity killed the cat?"

[zeroking17]

It'll turn out fine. I once got a Schwinn Voyager this way.

[Ginger]

This was my first guess but it was added after the wall was painted and the construction of this house is high enough quality that the builder wouldn't have done this after the fact. And the previous owner was an idiot and didn't do anything except put a nail and bulldog into every piece of straight grain douglas fir she could find in the house. She must have had garlands and knick-knacks for 6 houses strung inside and out. Fun times ahead with wood filler.

Something tells me that I won't make it until Sunday without finding a long inedible stick. What was that about "curiosity killed the cat?"

Curiosity killed the cat? Satisfaction brought him back.


My guess is toothpaste.

No really.

It's an old dorm trick to use toothpaste the same color as the wall to fill in cracks. Could be painter's caulk instead.

Perhaps someone was "fixing" things so the house looked good without actually doing the "right job" and left a little surprise for you...um...missed smoothing out that goop.

[SadieKate]

It doesn't show in the picture, but it is bright white - not even close to the paint color and it would be about the entire tube's worth of paste. That would definitely big one big dorm trick.

Someone has suggested that we've finally found Jimmy Hoffa's body. In which case, I may delay poking it with a long stick.

[Bud_E]

.

[swoop]

so.. what was it? i feel vulnerable and i need some closure.

[manet]

any evidence of a cheryl tiegs poster having been mounted to the ceiling

[William]

"Something About Mary".

Nuff said.


William

[Birddog]

It does sort of resemble a wet TP spit wad type adornment. I'd try to pry it with a stick, a yardstick would probably work.

If your straight grain Doug Fir is unpainted, DO NOT use wood filler. Use Color Putty or a similar product, some of them are in sticks. Even a color crayons work. Practice getting the color correct by mixing if nec.

Birddog