Ants are on my cabinet, mosquitoes at the door;
Summertime has come at last. Who could ask for more?
I don’t know if they are coming in to escape the rain, or if the rain is causing them to multiply. Maybe each raindrop is a tiny capsule filled with baby mosquitoes and ants. Maybe they are invaders from space in the form of pesky insects. Maybe they are a plague!
Yesterday, my neighbor showed me a mosquito repellent from the Farmer’s Co-Op. It’s to be hung on a tree limb away from people because it attracts those pesky, zinging, blood-sucking varmints. I hope it works. Maybe it’ll attract mine too. But, just to be sure my mosquitoes are exposed to it, I plan to buy a repellent of my own. It’s supposed to work sort of like the Japanese Beetle traps. They called in Japanese Beetles from miles away, attracted by the scent. Which was fine, but the bags filled up and the beetles kept coming. When they were so bad one year, I found the only sure deterrent was picking them off by hand and dropping them into a bucket of sudsy water. By picking them off morning, noon, and night, I finally discouraged them from attacking my roses.
City-wide spraying does no good at all. In fact, I harbor a belief that spraying gets rid of the bees and butterflies and dragonflies but the mosquitoes regard it as the nectar of the gods. We need to bring back dragonflies and swallows and bats and whatever else include mosquitoes in their diet.
And, ants? I noticed a whole village of tiny ant mounds in my yard. My theory is that the rain is flooding them out of their homes and into mine.
Since every plague must surely has its plus side, I’m thinking of maybe a new plot for a mystery: Ants, Mosquitoes, and Murder. Only thing is, I don’t believe it would be considered a cozy.
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