The ants here are tiny, maybe an eighth of an inch (.3 cm) long, and ubiquitous. You see long lines of them marching along the deck toward some mysterious destination. You see individual ones scouting for treasure, scurrying along the floor, across the kitchen counter, up the bathroom wall, along the rim of your drinking glass (occasionally falling in). If you are foolish enough to drop a crumb or leave an unattended nibblet of cat food they will promptly find it, alert their brethren, and swarm over it as if it were manna from heaven. If you don’t thoroughly clean the can opener they will swarm over that. If you only seal your bag of cookies by rolling up the open end and securing it with a clothes pin, they will find a way inside. If you rely on the individual foil wrappers to protect your bouillon cubes you will find them eaten right through. Better use a zip lock bag. And make it a good one, because the cheap ones leave just enough of an opening for the little pests to gain access anyway. They even like to traipse around my paint palette, especially if I’m using Transparent Gold Ocher. For some reason they find that particular color quite tasty. Weird buggers.
Deborah does battle with them daily in the kitchen. She places blocks of camphor at strategic locations to repel them. She wipes the counter down with eucalyptus oil. She seals up leftovers immediately and places everything she can in the small refrigerator. We’ve probably ingested a few by accident when they’ve crawled onto our plate or dropped into our cup. They’re so small you’d hardly notice. Just a little extra tropical seasoning.
_
When not fighting ants, Deborah likes to eat at restaurants by Savusavu Bay
So, have you requested visitors to bring really good zip lock bags as gifts when they visit? :-D
ReplyDelete