EWWWW!! Nature!!

[ABSTRUSE]

Damn, just found out, motion denied.

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

I don't.

 

[doormouse]

You people are nuts!!

NUTS!! I tell you!!

scampers back to her hole...

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

I bet you live in a masonry house and don't have the same concerns as the woody ones over here.

I live in a cave.

Lou

P.S. Doormouse, you're the worst of all. Hairspray!!!!???? BITCH!

 

[doormouse]

I live in a cave.

Lou

P.S. Doormouse, you're the worst of all. Hairspray!!!!???? BITCH!

Thinners works wonders too

 

[OldnotDead]

Separate but Equal

But your house was built on their natural habitat. Bugs have rights, too, ya know!!!

Hello, Lou,

Out of some 50,000 square feet, I only took away a couple thousand and then I gave them LOTS of good roots and a WONDERFUL pile of old, rotted limbs and stumps. So from my point of view, I've met them far more than halfway.

When the grubs showed up and ate half the lawn, did I go out and spread Grubex? NOoooo! I put down MORE grass seed and fed them well.

And when they all started eating leaves of my nice new fruit trees, what did I do? I planted even more.

So where they used to only have an empty field of weeds, I've given them a habitat to die for and all I ask is that they stay outside where I've given them LOTS of food.

Yes, we have put up some bird houses and frogs are always welcome here. We even have a ladybug house and my son made a bat house for down by the woods.

But I do have some rules and when one of the ant colonies decided to have their own olympic swimming contests I drew the line, as it were. They're welcome to the fish pond, but any more relatives come in the swimming pool and The Orkin Man WILL be called!

 

[doormouse]

You know what's really good for ants?

I used to work in a confectioners. We couldn't use insecticides, so had to use baby/talcum powder.

The ants can't breathe and suffocate.

Oh the joys LOL

(sorry, Lou, but it's true... couldn't resist adding it)

 

[Guest]

Re: Separate but Equal

Hello, Lou,

Out of some 50,000 square feet, I only took away a couple thousand and then I gave them LOTS of good roots and a WONDERFUL pile of old, rotted limbs and stumps. So from my point of view, I've met them far more than halfway.

When the grubs showed up and ate half the lawn, did I go out and spread Grubex? NOoooo! I put down MORE grass seed and fed them well.

And when they all started eating leaves of my nice new fruit trees, what did I do? I planted even more.

So where they used to only have an empty field of weeds, I've given them a habitat to die for and all I ask is that they stay outside where I've given them LOTS of food.

Yes, we have put up some bird houses and frogs are always welcome here. We even have a ladybug house and my son made a bat house for down by the woods.

But I do have some rules and when one of the ant colonies decided to have their own olympic swimming contests I drew the line, as it were. They're welcome to the fish pond, but any more relatives come in the swimming pool and The Orkin Man WILL be called!

You really should post more. You never fail to make me smile and induce those warm fuzzies.

Oh, but I just saw the quote in your sigline. Don't become an addict on my account, whatever you do.

Lou

 

[OldnotDead]

Lou likes WARM?

You really should post more. You never fail to make me smile and induce those warm fuzzies.

Oh, but I just saw the quote in your sigline. Don't become an addict on my account, whatever you do.

Lou

How about HOT?!

Hello, again,

Sure, everyone's think sex, 'cuz this is LiT. But I'm talking about roasted bugs.

Lou asks for more posts, so I'll tell why I'm a little nicer to bugs than I used to be. We were rehabbing an old house (well, old for this side of The Pond) and in the middle of the driveway was a nest of ground wasps.

Couldn't get rid of the buggers and with a brand new baby on the way, they were ordered evicted by The Highest Power of ALL.

So following the advice of a friend who owned a nursery, I dripped some gasoline down the entrances I could find. Well, maybe 'dripped' is not the right word. THAT's what he told me to do, but POURED is more like it.

Well, when lit - WHOOOOOMPH! and the whole friggin driveway was on fire. GD nest was so big it went to within a few feet of the house.

Fortunately I was able to put it out. Also, the wasps never came back. The Highest Power of All decided, however, that I no longer had any extermination privileges that involved anything more complicated than a swatter.

 

[minsue]

Sher,

It's been a long time since I was taking apart a Southern house and looking at terminte infestations, but if I remember right, some termite progeny are white and look an awful lot like the things you are describing.

They are very resourceful and as someone mentioned, will make earthen tubes to travel in between moist ground (or pot) and edible fiber. You might want to have someone do a little checking and make sure you have some good prevention in place.

Just like their ant cousins, it's pretty rare to find only one nest in an area.

Good point, OnD. I hadn't thought about it, but one of the other things I learned from our little termite invasion was that ants apparently feed on termites. At least the ones here do. Something I wish I had known before we bought the house since we did know that the backyard was infested with ants and, as we later learned from one of the exterminators that came out to bid, that is said to be a sure sign of termites in the area. Oops.

 

[shereads]

Termites? Ha! The slimy algae-glob that clogs up the A/C drain every summer isn't living off of stale water and disintegrating PVC molecules, my friends. It's feeding on something, and I like to think it's eating termites. What the slime doesn't consume, the opossums carry back to their nests to save for the lean times at the end of mango season.

I laugh at termites! I've been laughing at termites since the Orkin man told me, "Just hope you never have to treat this place for termites. With those deck add-ons, you're talking serious money."

The back deck will eventually have to go anyway, because some idiot built it over what I'm told is the location of the septic tank.

Here's my plan:

Septic tank backs up.

Destroy back deck to provide septic tank access.

Locate septic tank slightly outside the destroyed area.

Have house tented for termites.

Hire carpenter to rebuild deck. Pull permits.

Wait six months. Hire different carpenter.

Be cited for zoning violations discovered when building inspector approves new deck and finds out the front deck is a code violation.

Pay huge fines.

Lose job. Put house on sale, as-is, with gaping dirt hole where deck used to be.

Become first person in 10 years to take a dramatic loss on a house in this neighborhood.

Move to cold, dry climate, where shiny hair will be a fair trade-off for nose-bleeds, and where a bag lady can be comfortably attired in all of her clothing at once.

If you knew my history as a homeowner and as a hirer of contractors/electricians/plumbers/carpenters/repairmen of all sorts, you'd know why this plan is so clever: because it's inevitable. Which is as just good as clever.



Someday, when your children are all tucked in and you want a scary story, ask me about the animal skeleton in the attic.

 

[SummerMorning]

I breed spiders for breakfast.

not really...

...but it's quite fun when you find a colony on your morning toast, no?

 

[doormouse]

I breed spiders for breakfast.

not really...

...but it's quite fun when you find a colony on your morning toast, no?

Mmmm Spider omelette

 

[Guest]

Just for Lou

 

[shereads]

Lou, Lime, don't get me wrong. I admire spider webs and will sometimes leave a patch of the lawn unmowed to avoid breaking a beautiful web strung between trees. I've heard that if you break the web before the spider has caught his lunch, he won't have the energy to build a new one. There are some colorful, semi-cute little crab spiders and enormous "wolf spiders" here. Fascinating. Especially at a distance. They're more than welcome to all the mosquitos they can eat.

As for torturing any living thing, I don't get it. I last stomped on something just for the hell of it when I was 3 years old. I had these cool new bright-red rainboots and I saw an earthworm on the sidewalk and stomped it just because I could...

It wrapped around my foot!!!!!

All the more traumatic, because I knew I deserved it for wanting to hurt something weaker than me.

I might have majored in a science if not for those red rain boots and that hideous helpless disgusting victim-worm. One look at a jar of giant worms in formaldehyde, and I knew I'd never make it as a biologist.

Even insects get their revenge, one way or another.

 

[tolyk]

Lime, nice spider. Here is one that we found on the flowers in my yard. Not sure what kind it is, but it breathes through a spot in the middle of its body.. Kind of like a blow-hole on a whale.

 

[Guest]

Ahhhhh, and niceness is restored. I'm loving this thread now. Thank you, Lime, Sher and Tolyk.

Lou

 

[tolyk]

Ahhhhh, and niceness is restored. I'm loving this thread now. Thank you, Lime, Sher and Tolyk.

Lou

Oh, well the spider got killed. I took the picture, but afterwards it was left inside a margarin container with no air holes.... (Not by me, I would've let it go, but I didn't know)

 

[Guest]

Oh, well the spider got killed. I took the picture, but afterwards it was left inside a margarin container with no air holes.... (Not by me, I would've let it go, but I didn't know)

*POP*

That was my bubble bursting.

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4_2_2.gif

 

[tolyk]

*POP*

That was my bubble bursting.

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4_2_2.gif

Glad I could be of service If you need anything else popped, give me a call

 

[Guest]

Glad I could be of service If you need anything else popped, give me a call

With what you've got between your legs, you could shag me and pop a lung while you're at it.

I'll let you know.

 

[tolyk]

With what you've got between your legs, you could shag me and pop a lung while you're at it.

I'll let you know.

*blush*

 

[Guest]

*blush*