Saturday, March 04, 2006

The Second Plague Visited Upon Them

Well, we appear to have traded ants for flies. Lots and lots and lots of flies. We are killing easily fifty of them a night, and they keep on coming. I actually bought fly spray today - fly strips seem unable to catch any but the slowest, stupidest of flies, and the fly swatters are just not enough.

I guess that's what we get for living in the cows' backyard.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A word from "Enviro-dad",
Fly sprays of the Raid variety have basically the same effect on our nervous systems as the do on the insect's, the only saving grace being that we are larger so it would take a lot more to do us in. I have read that even a slight exposure can alter brain activity for up to a year. This unsettling bit of trivia, coupled with a lack of knowledge on my part as to how diligent Peruvian officials are about what is on the market leads me to advise extreme caution when using the spray in the living space, especially around the young-uns. Do the windows have screens??

Melania said...

No window screens, alas. We are keeping the windows and doors closed as much as possible, which helps, but there are just loads of flies. We are restricting Raid use (and it is actual Raid) to nighttime sprays in rooms nobody will use till morning. And, really, I the maid has used it once and Aaron and I haven't used it at all yet - we agree that it's nasty stuff.

Anonymous said...

I have sometimes wondered why the humble window screen seems to be so much a Canadian innovation. Especially when you consider the fact that it is winter here about 90% of the time. Go figure! Do you have central air? I didn't notice any mosquito nets hanging over the beds.

Melania said...

We don't have central air, or any air conditioning at all. Or fans. But the house doesn't really get that hot. The temperatures here max out at about 25 degrees, and it cools right down at night because of the altitude.

Window screens would be good, though. I'm at a loss as to why they don't have them here.