Bug Battles

The battle with the ants is once again leaning in favor of the good guys.  As long as wee keep the counter tops wiped up, and the dishes in the sink to a minimum, we are relatively ant-free.  Actually, I should thank the ants - Adam is much more diligent about his own contributions to the cause and he has been cleaning in the kitchen more often.

So now we have fruit flies.  Well, I think they are big for fruit flies, but for lack of interest in internet research on species, let's call them fruit flies.  They stay pretty much out of site during the day, though you can find them clustered around water sources.  At about sunset, they all come out and just sit.  They would not bother me so much, since they are non-bitey, non-stingy, and not crawling on my food and/or pillow, but there are just so MANY of them.  They are an army, and a force to be reckoned with.

They are super easy to kill.  They move slowly, so a wap with the flyswatter does them in in a jif.  But it does them in a little too well.  One wap, and there are bug guts an inch long on the ceiling.  One tap, and the guts are limited to a dime size area.  So I kill like 50 of the little suckers in a minute, then spend the next 50 minutes moving my step stool around and cleaning up the crime scene.

We found they could be killed with a deadly clap.  They fly slowly, so it is not too hard to get them in mid air. So no icky guts on my new kitchen paint - just on my hand.   Ewww!  So, I got my rubber kitchen gloves, which once again need replacing because I will never be able to convince myself the bug guts are washed off and I can cut food with these on again.  I walked around the room, clapping the claps of death and making eerie "wah ha ha" sounds.  But I cannot reach the ceiling bugs without the swatter, and so I was back in the same spot.

This morning, I found that I could suck them up in my Dirt Devil.  Wah ha ha!  Again!  I am amazed that the little bugs still just sit there as this loud thing saunters up and sucks them to their doom.  The ones that do fly are the most fun though, because I can suck them right out of the air.  Shuzaw!  Phoom! I imagine the Batman like cartoon strip - me the evil villan - as I lumber through the town sucking the citizens from their very homes!

And then I hit my heel on the back of the counter as I was circling around, looking up at the little buzzy fly, and not at the ground around me. 

Score one for the fly.

Score a bazillion for me.

But I am not sure when I should empty the Dirt Devil...