Earlier, I described how the staff at a Ritz Carlton in the Arizona desert closed the drains in the sink in my room whenever they tidied up the place.
I assumed that this was some uber-fancy-customer-service thing: Close the drains so the guest doesn't have to.
But a reader named Cliff Kinney from Phoenix wrote to me with an alternative hypothesis:
I just wanted to give you a heads up on the most likely reason that the drain was closed, and that's to stop scorpions from entering your room through the drain as that's a popular way for them to enter buildings.
Scorpions!
The web site of an Arizona pest control company supports this hypothesis:
4. Do NOT walk around the home during the nighttime hours with BAREFEET! Check all shoes, folded towels, dresser drawers, closets on a periodic basis for scorpions. Check molding around all in door piping and repair if any holes are present. Keep all drains (tub, shower, sinks, etc) closed or sealed when not in use as scorpions have been known to come up through the drains on rare occasions.
So maybe that's what the Ritz Carlton was up to.
You can see the rest of my Ritz Carlton bathroom and suite here >
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