Mama’s Herb Garden

I’d like to preface the following comments by acknowledging that people’s fears are real and worthy of respectful consideration. There. That’s out of the way. Now I want to tell you about what happened last week.

One of our Customer Care Mamas, let’s just call her “Trixie” to afford her some measure of anonymity, had a terrifying run in with the frightening world of arachnids.

Earth Mama Angel Baby’s manufacturing facility is certified organic. That means that besides being required to do monumental mountains of paperwork and enduring exhaustive annual inspections, part of protecting the integrity of our certified organic raw materials requires us to be very conscious about everything from the cleaners we use to the way we manage pest control. Nothing we use can, in any way, threaten the purity and sanctity of our herbs.

As a result heroic measures are taken to trap, escort, herd, or otherwise remove insects from the premises when the pesticide-free sticky traps fail. We use only non-toxic methods of keeping our raw materials protected. My favorite clever technique is using bobcat pee sprinkled around the perimeter of the building to repel rodents. That makes even the most stoic and stern inspectors smile. As you have probably gathered, I’m personally unperturbed by winged, wiggly, or furry beasties, and I have always considered spiders (or at least the ones living in Oregon) helpers that eat unwanted insects.

Last week, I was in my office in the middle of a very important and highly sensitive meeting (we were probably in deep negotiations about what was on the menu for our monthly Free Lunch Friday). During this crucial meeting, I heard a commotion coming from the direction of Trixie’s desk just outside my office — a frenzied flurry of activity, audible sounds that could be considered minor shrieks and urgent scraping of chairs. I think it’s relevant here to mention that Trixie is a powerful woman with a deep, strong voice, a very intelligent and slightly sarcastic sense of humor, and is the sort of person you want on your side in a cat fight. She’s from Indiana and can clearly hold her own. Except with spiders, apparently.

Later, when I was doing my end ‘o day check in, Trixie told me that she had endured a terrifying attack of thousands upon thousands of spiders ostensibly coming from a box of photos and CDs residing under a neighboring desk.

Here is the box in question. Clearly, it appears ominous. Cassandra (our Graphics Mama) came to Trixie’s rescue and respectfully ushered the offending spider (or possibly spiders) out the closest door. Damage control was assessed and all was restored to peaceful tranquility after we put not one but three spider sticky traps under her desk. Phew. Crisis averted.

Having just completed the previously mentioned mountain of paperwork for our annual organic inspection, I am reminded that we make space for all things, but set limits to where insects are allowed. Not in our building. And fortunately, we have employees like Tracey… er… Trixie to ring vocal alarm bells and run around in circles when a spider decides to innocently stretch its itsy bitsy legs.

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Tags: arachnophobia, Earth Mama Angel Baby, employees, organic certification, pest management, spiders, staff

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Inside EMAB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.