Kicker: Fiery weapons

NICK EICHER, HOST: There is a difference between being over-prepared and being under-prepared. Movie star Sean Connery back in the 1980s played a character who famously mocked the under-prepared.

AUDIO: Heh … brings a knife to a gunfight.

EICHER: Now if you know the movie, you know Sean Connery turned out to be the one who was outgunned.

But that brings us to real life, present day, Fresno, California: A man keeping watch over his parents’ home while they were away noticed a big problem, black widow spiders. And his response was completely reasonable. Got to get rid of them.

But the weapon he chose to do the deed, not so reasonable.

He grabbed a blowtorch.

REICHARD: Uh-oh!

EICHER: Well, you can imagine how that turned out, right? Firefighters, two-alarm blaze, even the second story of the home and the attic sustained damage.

You should know the housesitter got out okay, and the local fire department tweeted helpfully that the blowtorch is a bad pest-control strategy.

In other words: Don’t bring a flamethrower to an aerosol spray-can fight. Or, just call the Orkin man.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/CBS Los Angeles)

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