I took Mimi off to the bus station this morning early, she got to Cancun airport OK and I’m waiting to hear from her when she lands in Denver.
Last night we were getting ready to go to what I thought was a party at a friend’s house when we noticed that the kitchen counter was swarming with ants. We found them in a drawer too. Man, I hate ants. They will inherit the earth I’m sure but I wish to hell they’d wait until I’m done with my little piece of it. They were coming from a tiny hole way up by the ceiling so Mimi got the Really Scary Tall Ladder out and I held it while she climbed up and tried to spray into the hole. We cleaned up, emptied the drawer they were in and started to get ready to leave. I wasn’t worried about the time since I thought it was a party and everyone is late to most things here. I’m not too good though at figuring out the ones you can be late for and the ones you can’t.
Anyway, we came downstairs and the ants were back in a wide trail from another hole high on the ceiling. There are times when having an 19′ ceiling is not the bomb. More cleaning up with vinegar and putting out of ant bait and we took off. On the way I got a call and discovered it was a small dinner party and they were waiting for us – we were an hour late! Oh God! I felt horrible. I need to remember to ask better questions about these things so I can establish if it is an ‘OK to be late’ event or not.
Dinner was marvelous and after a couple of cosmopolitans I got over my embarrassment at being so late. Well, almost. I’m still cringing a little. When we got home I was putting the key in the lock in the garage and felt something cross my foot. Mimi saw it and swears it was a mouse. Great! Mice in the garage (there is NEVER just one of them) and ants in the kitchen. The best thing about it is that we have very tight weather stripping on the door from the garage to the house so I’m sure they will not get inside. Maybe I’ll put Tita in there one night and let her prove how well she’d eat if I just let her run up the wall and become a street cat.
So, today the plumber was supposed to come at 11am to work on the irrigation hook ups. Nope, he didn’t show. But, the guys for the bamboo fence extension did show up (unscheduled) and measured for the support. That’s good. Around 4pm I was thinking of going to the store because I couldn’t find anything to eat here except cereal when the plumber showed up. He started with the ‘lo que pasa es…’ and I just told him it was OK to come on in. I think I’ve said before how I just tune out when I hear that because everything afterward is excuse anyway. He’s out back with a helper and a lot of pvc now hammering and singing. He does have a beautiful voice and he sings my favorite old Mexican ballads. I can’t leave to go to the store, I’ve had 2 bowls of cereal and the last of my Bubu Lubu’s and I couldn’t go to my Spanish class that started at 5:40. Ah well, I think I’ll just tell the teacher “lo que pasa es…”
my new Desert Rose, reminds me of a Botticelli alien
Oh, I can so relate to all of it. Ants (the tiny ones?) have returned, one has to be incredibly diligent in the kitchen to keep them at bay. But then they’re in the bathroom too, carving a path around the tub.
Perhaps the ‘mouse’ was really one of those big roaches (I like to call them Palmetto Bugs, like in Florida). When I take Loco out to walk there is always a big one in the middle of the road. They walk high, like on little stilts, I can almost hear the noise (like they use in cartoons). And they tickle – if you want to know how I know, it’s because one seems to come in under the back door every night, and Smokey lies in wait, and thinks it is the right thing to do to bring it into the bed, still alive. The other night I felt a tickle on my arm, and then my leg, and I just knew…and turning on the light exposed the critter, which I quickly flung onto the floor for Smokey to polish off (and I went upstairs to sleep in that bedroom, with the door closed so nobody could bring me bugs). I hope it was a roach, they are much easier to deal with than mice.
Good luck with it all! And oh, I like your alien plant, kind of freaky but has a pretty flower.
Have you had any more visits from the leaf cutters? They were everywhere in the Villa Obregon garden.
I sooo hear you sister!… ants in the cottage (were renovating, now living in/renovating) many, many little brownish red ones, drinking down the sugar poison with the big black ones that I swear wear union badges and are on shift work. I’m going to agent organge the cottage crawl space soon to get them and those fuzzy, squat black spiders. They may have been here from 1932 on, but there’s a new sheriff in town!
You go Sheriff Rummy! These ants don’t seem to like sugar, that amazes me. They were not interested in sweet bait and when we found them their target was a sample bag of dry dog food that we had put in a zip lock bag to use as a treat. The cat had made small claw holes in the bag and the ants had found them. So, Mimi baited the trap with the same dog food and boric acid. Today I haven’t seen any coming to the trap, yesterday they did seem to work in shifts stopping during the heat of the day.
Steve, no return of the leafcutters but I have the rest of the bottle of Trompa waiting for them if they come back. This new planting may attract some, we’ll see.
Sue, I’ve woken up to the “palmetto bugs” on me also, not pleasant. That was over in Akumal though so I’ve convinced myself they are coastal dwellers. This was a soft fuzzy touch, not the raspy touch of a big roach. There is a huge gap at the bottom of the garage door to the street and I’m sure that is where it came from. Mouse was probably Mimi being nice, it was no doubt a rat.
I am absolutely crazed over the ants here. I am constantly coming up with new weapons to use against them. i use all kinds of products, good and bad. Senor uses masking tape, wrapped sticky side out around the trees and THAT WORKS GREAT!!!!
Senor also thinks they have rather large condos below us and all the rest of Alamos and we hope one day to not just sink slowly down.
Wanted to make sure you got my comment about the napolitano. Tony, the flan man, says the difference is napolitana is made with cream cheese and extra egg yolks….
Trust me, it was a mouse. Had it been a rat I would have bowled you over to get out the garage
Ants hate cinnamon. My brother lives in Encinitas, and he had an ant problem. He sprinkled cinnamon around the hole that the ants were coming out of, then sprinkled a trail of it to gradually lead the ants (that were already inside) outside. They act like it’s poisen, which, to them, it must be.
Oh, and we have mice, too – little field mice that our cats do NOTHING about. One thing that I’ve heard of that works amazingly well – but that I haven’t yet tried – is oil of peppermint, saturated on cotton balls.
Linda Lou, yes, I saw the answer to my flan question. No wonder that napolitano tastes so rich, it’s a heart attack in a bowl! We’re using boric acid in whatever the ants seem to want to eat, in this case dog food. It will eventually seem to work but I think there is an endless supply of ants and we’ll never get them all. It’s amazing, the flow will slow down or even stop and then they come out of another place. I’m concerned about the wiring because I’ve heard they eat it. Not good. I hate getting the exterminators in because it is such a PITA with the animals and the fish but they do work.
Alex, what great ideas. I like cinnamon and peppermint and it wouldn’t tempt the cats to eat it which is my fear with poison. I’ll put some cinnamon on the counters right now.