I'm not.
I hate ants.
In the US, I would fight ants for all I was worth.
Give me spiders or roaches, but not ants. (Well, not these tropical, flying roaches. They freak me out. THANKS, KAFKA!)
But living in a tropical society with a doors-and-windows-open policy means being at peace with the fact that even if I get rid of one batch of ants, more will come. If we see a group of ants congregating at one spot, that means something needs to be cleaned, but they freely roam anywhere. >sigh<
I am taking it to be a trade-off. Open doors and windows might mean we get ants, but it also means we get geckos! I've only seen one gecko inside the house. Up in the 2nd-floor hall by the balcony. Maybe our fans on the first floor keep them outside. From my perch at the kitchen bar-top, I get to watch our three resident first-floor geckos play on the wicker (rattan?) blind that hangs outside our kitchen window. I haven't named them, because I can't tell them apart.
The blind hangs outside, and they live outside, but they play on the window side of the blind as if hiding from the sun. I love geckos. I'm so happy to have them near!
There are many things I could be writing about today. It's our third day in this house, and each day I've performed a different cleaning task, and each day we have purchased something different for the house. Mostly, it's more space than either of us are used to, and I am relieved that I don't have a 9-to-5 job right now, because it took me all of the first day to do all the floors, and that didn't include bathrooms!
I'm learning the importance of taking breaks, because it's freaking hot, even though I try to deny it. (sweat doesn't lie.) In my daily meditation, I'm trying to train my body to think I'm cold. It's not working.
Ants and sweat. Are there any daily annoyances that you have had to come to peace with? How's it working for you? I'll try to get some pictures of the geckos one of these days.
Maybe the ants will draw the geckos in?
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw a gecko inside the house in Hawaii - I will admit to being marginally freaked until I learned they ate bugs. Then I practically started doing a gecko dance to bring them in.
(I can send you the choreography, if you'd like.)
LOL. Sure I'll take the choreography! I get up first, and often sort-of dance while I clean downstairs, so maybe I can incorporate the gecko steps.
DeleteActually, today I moved a backpack and there was a little gecko hiding under it. Inside - baboom! I call him Lucky.
We used to have ant infestations every summer. I got in the habit of sealing all food in air tight containers or ziploc bags. I still do even after moving to a place where we don't have ant problems. (I'm not sure why, but I'll take it.)
ReplyDeleteI noticed that everything here is sold in single-size packages. Packaged food, that is. I imagine that's partly because of ants and other bugs, and partly because of the humidity. A normal-sized box of cookies or crackers would get stale mighty quick in this climate!
DeleteBut I did get some snap-lock containers, to make everything easier to store.
Living in an RV for ten years, ants are always an issue but especially when we were camped in Texas or Florida. Thank goodness for Terro Ant Bait.
ReplyDeleteI love geckos, lizards, iguanas....now you need to train yours to eat the ants. LOL!
I don't deal well with heat, especially humid heat. Makes it hard for me to breath and my blood pressure rises. Good luck with the house cleaning!
I quickly learned that I need to take breaks. One day of almost non-stop cleaning and I was dehydrating. So the 2nd day I logged my breaks, making sure I took at least 4 chances to sit and rest with water and no activity.
DeleteI don't have high blood pressure, but I'm not exactly cardio-fit!
I think geckos are cute but I don't want one running around in my house. Yikes. No ants either. I just had some in the kitchen and sprayed some peppermint spray around. It didn't get rid of all of them so I resorted to a spritz of Raid! Gone!!
ReplyDeleteI might get some Raid for roaches if I ever find it. There's just no excuse for them. Because the local expat wisdom is "get used to ants" and because we keep doors and windows open, I am getting less yell-y when I see them. They don't make me angry at all! That is some big personal growth, right there.
DeleteGeckos don't get underfoot, and don't get into the food, so I'm happy to share my space.
My time living in Puerto Rico got me accustomed to the constant presence of geckos, lizards and various creepy crawlies. There just didn't seem to be any way to escape it.
ReplyDeleteI think we got lucky the last few months being on a higher floor in a bigger city. Now we live in the thick of it all.
I'll adapt.
DeleteMaybe not to the giant, flying cockroaches, though.
The wonderful geckos must more than make up for the ants. Unless they're Tokay geckos which I understand get pretty noisy at night and have another, more crude name.
ReplyDeleteAnd it could be worse than ants. I know a couple who were in South Africa. One night they found giant spiders all over the place where they were staying and they killed them all. Then they couldn't sleep because of the mosquitoes.
The next morning they mentioned that to the owner who said, "Weird. The spiders usually take care of the mosquitoes."
We're okay with spiders. I've seen them, and I probably sweep them out the door if they get in the way, but I don't intentionally kill them. So far, mosquitoes haven't been a problem in the house, but I bet I'll need to buy mosquito coils or something for the rainy season.
DeleteI believe ants have every right to the garden and lawn BUT not my living areas. I spray them (I'm mean like that) or put that ant powder down to deter them. Give me a gecko or two any day!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you! Unfortunately, the conventional wisdom among expats here is to learn to ignore them.
DeleteI just found a trail in my kitchen leading to the outside of my apartment. I hate ants too. I am enjoying my visits to your blog :)
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in the US, they would make me so angry! I was fanatical about keeping the kitchen clean. Now, I just make sure no open food is left out for them.
DeleteRed,
ReplyDeleteI read if you rid your home of a few ants then more will go in search of the ones that do not return, so maybe it's best to leave the few alone to keep the rest out. Let the few report no food found with the hopes they'll move on to someone else. :) Yesterday was a bit too hot to suit me and whew, I was glistening (sweating) like a little piglet, too. I'm looking forward to fall but am doing my best to enjoy summer because I really dislike winter. I don't do cold very well. :)
My husband's that way. Honestly, half the draw of Vietnam was the climate. This summer, I think my friends in the US had a hotter summer than we did, but we get that lovely glisten every day!
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