Carl's Big Adventure

One of the hardest things to deal with here are the number of insects that make it into the house. The most noticable are the ants. I learned early on that ants go where they want to go and there's no stopping them.

There seems to be 3 types of ants here, I don't know what they are really called but I call them red ants, black ants and white ants.

Black ants are your normal ants that we have in the U.S. They aren't very plentiful in the house and haven't been a problem.

Red ants are very very small but are the ones who are always on the march. They tend to blend into the background but are the ones you need to check for when you are eating. I've learned to bang my bread on the plate before eating. sometimes 50 ants may shake out telling me that it may be time for new bread. They are extremely quick and efficient and will eat other insects. If you kill a spider and leave it, within 15 minutes there will be hundreds of ants munching away, then when they are done they fade back into the night.

A very close up shot of the red ants.

White ants are very large and fly. They only come out every once in a while but when they do they swarm toward any light. Last night they came to my lights. I was sitting playing on the computer and first I heard one insect, then another then next thing I know there were probably 20 in the living room. Then I got a bang on the door and it was my night watchman asking if I could turn on the front porch light and get him a pot. As soon as I turned on the light hundreds of white ants started swarming around. My watchman went about gathering them up as they are apparently quite tasty. I didn't get to sample the end result as the next morning he returned an empty pan. Maybe next time.

A dead white ant getting eaten by red ants. To get a picture of their sizes, the metal round item on the left is the sink drain.