As a friend of mine put it , life story on our farm is likeNational Geographic . It seems like every few week or so we have a raw swarm of something or other that mysteriously appears , and then just as chop-chop as it come , it disappear again . It ’s enough to drive anyone bonkers , but I ’ve yet to learn why these phenomenon happen ( short of imagine some confederacy of nature to labor us away from here ) .
Swarm No. 1
Back in July came the first swarm : carpenter ants . They came out of nowhere , and crawled in mickle on our flooring and around our window . Of course , I forthwith freak out out and thought the fly creatures could be termites — which would have been devastating for our business firm that ’s held up by self-coloured wood radio beam . After some fast Googling and a confirmation fromour local forester , who just happened to be shoot the breeze that morning , my fears were quelled — though only more or less . Unlike termite that eat wood , carpenter ants stick out their nest into it , which does n’t do quite as much damage , but could still weaken the integrity of the structure .
We pass about two days wet-nurse the swarm up with a Shop - Vac , and we never saw a carpenter emmet again . Weird , but OK .
Swarm No. 2
The 2d horde we discovered were white Anglo-Saxon Protestant . While ants everywhere leave my skin crawl , wasps make me desire to run for cover . I ’m not exactly a devotee of pain , so a wasp bunko is something I ardently endeavor to avoid .
We began noticing the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant when we found a few around the window of our basement . It ’s not like we have n’t seen any over the summertime , so we were n’t overly concerned about our findings . But then we started see them around our porch , and around our backdoor , and then we looked up and saw them teem around the roof of our planetary house .
Was there a nest on the cap ? Our house is pretty tall and sits atop a hill , so even our highest ladder could n’t serve us investigate the place , though that did n’t stop us from trying . coif in our bee veil , gloves , heavy coat and snow pants — in 85 - degree weather , bear in mind you — we suited up to get a closer look at the wasps and perhaps take a few out . ( While we ’re trying to run our farm as chemical - liberal as possible , wasps are the exception . )
The scene looked something like this : Rachael Brugger
I ’m really glad we do n’t have neighbour in eyeshot — we definitely looked like crazed city slickers .
As I touch , we had no fortune . The swarm did n’t congregate in a specific area , so our endeavor to douse them with wasp atomiser were sleeveless . Our next choice : call in professional reenforcement or live in passive coexistence until the frost hits . Our option , thus far , has been the latter . To be keep …
Rachael Brugger
Swarm No. 3
Not long after the wasps appeared , in came the flies . Not regular flies , though — intoxicated and/or dead unity . We ’ve found piles of utter fly around our windows and in our upstair attic , and the I that have been alive , I ’ve been able-bodied to splash with two fingers . That ’s just not normal fly behavior . It makes me inquire if they ’ve gotten into the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant spray . I trust it is n’t a signaling of some other environmental problem we need to deal with .
Swarm No. 4
Finally , just the other daylight I found another cloud : ladybugs . This one does n’t concern me as much . As annoying as I have it away it can be , this is a swarm I ’ve come to expect year after twelvemonth , as the garden upright bugs search shelter for the wintertime — though I ’ve take heed there can be such things asbitingladybugs , so now I ’m scared . ( You know , that whole pain matter . ) I guess I have some more Googling to do .
Rachael Brugger
Rachael Brugger
