Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Latest Migration

Last night, upon locking up the front doors, we discovered the inside hallway walls covered with teeny, tiny flying insects.  They jumped around, and I was worried that somehow fleas had invaded us.

If anyone (does anyone read this??) can identify, let me know.  They are about 1/2 cm. long, without the antennae.

Here is a picture of the dead carcasses on the back doorstep:





























Here is a close-up, taken through our magnifying tweezer lens:



And here is an idea of scale:

Saturday, October 5, 2013

This and That


The latest emerging insect seems to be moths.  These range in size from about 1/4" across the wingspan to about 2" across.  Each morning, outside the kitchen and under the security light the wall is covered.  This photo was taken about 4 days ago.



Other than being annoying, dead moths also attract the ants!  Nature's clean-up crew is always ready to haul away the debris.  Not so bad, unless of course, the moths fall in the house!  Fortunately our housekeeper is diligent about keeping the floors clean and we've been spared any ants coming in (so far).  Josephine also needed extra money for her daughters' tuition (school is not free here).  Rather than give a loan (which only increases poverty) she offered to come in 1 1/2 hours earlier than usual and keep the backyard cleaned.


The other insects that never really go away are mosquitos.  I never thought I'd welcome insect spray inside our home.  Living here makes spraying a daily necessity.  Each night, right after the sun goes down we spray all the curtains.  Then about 1 hour prior to bedtime we switch to the "low odor" spray, and do it again.  That, along with our Peaceful Sleep plug-ins usually keeps us mosquito free at night.   And sometimes not.  This morning there was one pesky one buzzing around our ears, and I found two fresh bites on my face.


Our nighttime guard has been bailing out the water since Tuesday and should be done by tomorrow.  He stays about 2 hours after his shift.  The pool is almost ready to scrape and refill!  That should help abate our mosquito population, and hopefully provide a nice respite from the heat in the afternoons.

We are still working on getting outside mosquito repellants made, using wine bottles, torch oil and citronella oil ..


Never ending, but when I look out on the back yard, if I remembered to spray under the desk where I write, the view is beautiful.