DEC 13, 11 .. PISS ANTS AND COCKROACHES AND INSECTS IN INDIA

By Cap Chastain December 13, 2011 Arambol Beach 2011/12, Cockroaches, Wandering The Streets of My Mind (yet again)

Way back ‘ when ‘ in these writings .. I got into some discussion of .. WILD LIFE IN INDIA .. especially in Calcutta and specifically with regard to Archy and his relatives (Archy and Mehitabel) .. and I mean ..  cockroaches .. within my room ..

I also put up photos of goats being herded within shopping centers .. horses in downtown Calcutta .. sacred cows and bulls galore .. ducks on the streets in Calcutta .. chipmonks and camels .. dogs in the streets .. and so on and so forth .. and pigs !

Now .. with regard to Arambol Beach in Goa on the West Coast of India .. I want to bring you all up-to-date on this subject .. Wild Life in India .. within my apartment ..

KEEP IN MIND I AM .. IN THE TROPICS .. stuff comes with the TROPICS ..

A week or so ago .. I hailed down the 14 Millionth Piss Ant that I have seen in my apartment .. and I asked this  Piss Ant .. “Where are the cockroaches ?” .. he said.. “Oh.. we eat their eggs.. so there are not too many.. ” ..

Obviously this is not true .. I can NOT communicate with Piss Ants .. but the fact is this .. there basically are no cockroaches to be seen in my apartment .. but with the absolute voracity for food Piss Ants have .. it would not surprise me that they are the reason there are no cockroaches to be seen ..

Piss Ants have absolutely no respect for we humans .. they run right onto us and giddily race along any surface they come into contact with.. from our skin right  onto our eyeglasses .. everywhere .. I am so conditioned to the feel of them that I am almost constantly swatting at places on my skin I ‘ feel ‘ one navigating .. and do they get into places .. the plastic case for my dental night guard has small holes for air circulation and when I open it up at night .. theah one might be ..  having successfully crawled into the case via the tiny air circulation holes ..

I have found that IF I dry the inside of the plastic case and let the mouth guard dry thoroughly after washing it in the morning with mouth wash .. they tend to stay away .. let me tell you they go crazy at an opportunity to get at mouth wash .. 

If I leave my water glass standing too long .. theah they are .. down inside .. several dozen of them.. carefully exploring the inside of my water glass .. they do seem gentle and very respectful .. very carefully exploring everything ..

When I kill a whole swath of them.. they tend to be scarce for some time .. keeping surfaces totally dry also really helps keep them at bay .. being so small .. when you get one with a finger tip they just sort of disappear into nothingness .. I just sort of ‘ roll them up ‘ with a finger in lieu of squashing them and that is that .. to get a small army I will use a napkin .. very lightly moistened with a touch of  water and go after them pressing down all over the place..

There are ways to kill them en mass but I haven’t gone that route.. a tablespoon of sugar.. a tablespoon of peanut butter.. a teaspoon of Borax.. mixed very well into a paste and put into straws.. will do the trick..  if the scouts are dying close by reduce the Borax you have too much .. you do not want the scouts to die.. you want the scouts taking the mix back to the nest and to the Queen ..

All in all I am living rather peacefully with the Piss Ants .. but .. could easily do without them ..

Onward ..

Are you all familiar with Walt Disney’s movie .. PINOCCHIO .. if so .. in the movie PINOCCHIO .. we have a lovable and very small character named .. Jiminy Cricket ..

Ah yes ..  Jiminy Cricket HAS RELATIVES here in Arambol Beach ..

The other night one was so noisy that he woke me up out of a sound sleep with his ‘ cricket chirping ‘ .. then he remained so noisy that I could not get back to sleep.. up I got.. lights on and flash light in hand.. and I could NOT FIND HIM .. 

Only the males ‘ chirp ‘ and they have four songs .. three of them to do with ‘ mating ‘ .. one calls for her .. the next talks lowly to her since he has gotten her to come close to him.. and the last of  these three is a .. that was nice .. low contented song after doing IT .. 

Being nocturnal they are quiet in the day.. so I have gotten somewhat skilled at finding them in the day.. putting a cut-off-plastic-water bottle over them.. slipping a piece of cardboard (from  a Special K cereal box) under them and whisking them outside and into the bushes ..

They must have a small sign outside of my apartment that only crickets can read .. saying .. “Inside is a nice meeting place for us to meet ” .. because try as I might.. they keep coming in.. and these are a large variety of cricket .. so large I walk with slippers on at night if I am up and about .. I do not want to step on one ..

LORD I LOVE .. WIKIPEDIA ..  SO MUCH .. where would I be with out WIKIPEDIA .. so I donate to them proudly ..

I am going to slip in here a .. $64,000 Dollar Question for you .. WHAT am I talking about below  ? 

Now we turn to an inanimate ‘ animal ‘ that is NOT in any way a living animal but it  acts like a large and a frightening insect ..  you see them out of the corner of your eye and you jump .. and they move like shadows and they move rapidly ..

My apartment floor  is constructed of 100% hard and shiny tile squares .. perfect for them to breed and move rapidly upon .. 

Daily.. DAILY .. I find them and get them outside of my apartment .. and DAILY they re-appear ..

They are a non-descript grey in color.. and are made up of hair.. lint.. dead skin cells .. fabric threads .. dust .. spider webs .. tiny other particles .. and are held together by static electricity ..

taa-daa.. Envelope Please .. (opening the Envelope).. they are .. taa-daa .. DUST BUNNIES !

good grief captain you have gone over the edge here ..

No matter how I sweep out my apartment.. carefully getting into nooks and crannies and corners ..  the next day I have a new family of  DUST BUNNIES .. I simply can not keep ahead of their re-formation .. I do have open windows I can NOT close located up at the ceiling level of my apartment ..

So far me and the Spiders have a truce .. they keep out of sight .. when I spy one I carefully cover it with my cut-off-plastic-water bottle and with my Special K piece of cardboard slipped under it .. get it out of my apartment .. they seem to love to be inside of Mister India Bag .. so I try to go into him carefully.. some are large .. 

Oddly.. some few mosquitoes (but those one or two are bothersome believe me) .. NO flies .. within my apartment.. lotsa flies out in restaurants .. and I have an assortment of moths .. fruit like flies .. and other benign insects ..

Bottom Line.. very do-able .. I can and I do easily live with the above wild life in my apartment .. I really have a handle on the Piss Ants .. 

over and out with much love.. cap in arambol beach in  goa on the west coast of india .. planet earth ..