Yesterday afternoon, Mel and I
cleaned the veranda. I took a bucket
with water and a brush and scrubbed the bird droppings off the rails that
surround the veranda, and Mel swept. We
ended on the north side of the house at about the same time. I don’t know why I looked up at the wooden
cross beam on the underside of the roof, but I did and I didn’t like what I
saw. In a small cluster, about the size
of a saucer, there were large black ants, I think, building a big nest. It was so organized, with cells like in a bee
hive and the workers were building around the edges of the structure. The first thing I thought of was
termites. I thought termites were larger
than what we saw, but these were large for ants. Whatever it was, I wanted it gone, and I had
no way of getting it there.
Each
evening, but before bed around nine, Mel takes Gigi out front for a final pee
and she turns on the porch light. I wait
in my chair for them most times, and she called for me to come out and
see. Marching along the joint of the
veranda and the house was a whole string of ant, going in the direction of the
north side of the house. I felt they
were a part of the colony that was building.
I took the broom and swept along the file and killed as many as I
could. The crippled ones were picked up
by the still whole ones, and they were going to pack them back to the compound,
but I killed and killed until I got all of them and swept the remnants over the
edge of the veranda.
When
we came back into the house we phoned Rita, and she said she was on a holiday
with her girlfriends, but she would tell Victor about the ant problem.
This
morning, fairly early, Victor came out with his brother and took a look at the
ants. He said he would come in the morning
and take care of them. We told him we
wanted them gone. I was concerned about the wood.
At
the other side of the house at the back standard holding up the corner of the
roof, the water damage had rotted away the bottom of the wood. I was so concerned about this, and told Rita
about it some time ago, and she said that under the wood there was a cement
post, so I gave up thinking that the corner of the roof would come down.
It is difficult to believe with
all the erosion around the house that it is only four years old. There are places on the surface that the
cover plaster is peeling off. Before
long, a coat of paint won’t cover it.
While
sweeping at the back of the house this morning, I placed two large beetles,
that had been writhing on their backs, into the land of Morte…..I don’t like
bugs and we have so many varieties that I can’t count them. I really thought they would be more in the
wild jungles of Costa Rica
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