The clouds have been gathering for days and we were wondering when it would start raining. This morning at 8am we heard the distant rumble of thunder, the sky turned from light blue to black in an instant and it poured down. We sighed with relief, the ducks quacked happily, the geese honked and the cat couldn’t care less. Get ready for the flood flies. Switch off all lights at 5pm tonight, close all doors and windows and run into the safety of your bedroom (or truck!). This will help minimise the invasion and hopefully this will mean less work tomorrow. This is the nuptial flight for termites. They leave wings everywhere in the after-math of their awakening.
Last Year….Arrrrghh!!!
What a mess…
Close-up Flood Flies Wings.
Be Prepared!! We are!! Flood Flies Protocol is in place…that’s why you are getting an early post. We’re off to bed now.
Join us next year for The Flood Flies Day Lottery!
The aftermath of official Flood Flies Day is a scene of horror and devastation. There are a few live crawling insects here and there in a background of millions of wings. Not only are they are they on the table-tops, cupboards and floor but they have managed to crawl into every single crevice imaginable. There are wings stuck to food, water, jars, inside boxes and just about everything! They have left no stone unturned in their mass awakening and have truly done their job in destroying all hope of homely, pristine comfort. Instead they have created a chaotic, maddening mess.
Gnome is casually ignoring my nervous twitch and passing it off as amorous winking in his direction (he should be so lucky).
I am trying to reclaim my territories bit by bit and it is a real battle. To add to all this, there was a power-cut at 10am this morning. I had a picture in my head of all the 1000 Watt vacuum cleaners going off at the same time and all the women in Punta Gorda having a massive Post Flood Flies Freak Out (PFFFO!).
This event makes you think that man’s dominance over the environment is precarious at best.
There are millions of them and I am not exaggerating. They are swarming and surrounding our house and getting into every nook and cranny to invade us. This is the biggest Flood Flies day we have seen and we have been here every year for the last 10 years.
Flood Flies.
They keep on coming:
More Flood Flies.
As I write, they are crawling all over us, down the shirts and down the trousers. Ugghh…I dislike (using a very light term) that creepy crawly feeling. There are masses collecting around all the lights, flying amock and dropping their wings.
I am worried about the mess of wings in the morning.
All Gnome is worried about is the mass of protein that he did not catch this time to eat.
What a funny world we live in…each to his own worry!
This is the nuptial flight of the termites which like to eat wood and cellulose. I take back my words, in a previous post, when I said that this day only occurred in May. It can occur in June too! Beware of termites if you live in a wooden house (like we do); they can literally eat you out of house and home.
Gnome’s last words before he went to sleep last night were, ” I intend to work all day tomorrow.”
Activation Sequence: Positive Sod’s Law.
And sure enough, it poured down today so no outside activity was possible. In a funny sort of way, we were trying out a new technique which we have coined “Positive Sod’s Law.” This utilises a statement of intention, the Sod’s Law principle and the fact that the final result is what you inadvertently wanted but managed to get through the convoluted channel of a “Sod.”
Anyway, since the well-pump has “done broke” as they would say here in Belize, we have been on water conservation “red alert.” This simply means that we are on bucket washes.
On a typical “Red Alert Day” we use the following amounts of water:
1) Bucket washes limited to 3 x day each; 30 gallons in total (120 litres).
2) Washing Clothes; 20 gallons (80 litres).
3) Washing dishes; 10 gallons (40 litres).
4) Water for consumption; 5 gallons (20 litres).
5) Miscellaneous; 5 gallons (20 litres).
Total water used up in one day is 70 gallons (about 280 litres as an over estimation).
We have two rain water tanks that store 660 gallons so that each tank gives us about 8 to 9 days of water. This means, we can last about 2 weeks of dry weather before we start on the “Positive Sod’s Law” technique. This is assuming that we get our water tanks filled right up to the top after each rain…this is not usually the case…more the case of one full tank.
Anyway, it rained lots today and the distant rumbling of thunder, grey clouds and flood flies indicate that there is more to come.
Flood Flies.
We are anticipating the invasion of the termite queens (the nuptial flight) in the house so we are getting ready for an early night. This equates to a mass of crawling termites and wings a-plenty. Just another Manic Monday!!
Last night, the first of the “flood flies” came. These are termite queens and fertile male termites on their “nuptial flight,” triggered by the first rains after the dry season. The purpose of this flight is to mate and form more termite colonies; these critters digest cellulose…in order words, they like to eat wooden structures including buildings and decaying wooden matter. So, you could consider them a pest or just part of the eco-system.
Flood Flies.
These flood flies start swarming in the evening, mostly around houses. They are attracted to light and will get into every nook and cranny of your house, shedding their wings as they come in. They do no bite but have a habit of crawling all over everything, including people and they just get really annoying. Before we sealed up our bedroom, we would have the flood flies crawling on us all night in bed. In the morning, the inside of the house would always be a scene of devastation with literally thousands of wings everywhere. It is a huge cleaning job; in earlier years when I was armed with only a mere broom, it would take me at least 2 weeks to clean up the whole mess. But now, I have my Eureka…thank God for that!
Eureka. The Cat Also Eats Flood Flies!
Anyway, I referred to them as the “First” flood flies; usually there is a test run with the first May rains before they come out en masse. Gnome says there should be a lottery for guessing the Flood Fly Day because it can happen anywhere from the the 1st of May to the 31st of May, but always in May! I am waiting with great trepidation, armed and dangerous with my trusty yellow vacuum cleaner! Gnome does not feel so negatively towards these blighters and in fact views them as a potential source of food. He says that one of these days (this means NEXT year…he does not procrastinate) he will make special nets to catch the flood flies, pack them all in a bucket and make miso out of them.
Potential Food?!
Today we were anticipating another rainy day which meant staying indoors. Gnome had already warned me to keep out of trouble since it was also the full moon and from our experience as medical doctors, the full moon was always a day for complete and utter chaos in hospital. So, Gnome urged me to keep busy and I tried…it was touch and go a few times with mood swings and chaos but we managed to get through it. By the way…we try to avoid making soap on the full moon because it never turns out right. One time, the soap over-heated and exploded into a foaming mess over the counter-top! What a clean-up…never again!
Today, in an effort to keep busy, I roasted brown rice in the oven for 3 hours….every 15 to 20 minutes I had to bring out the rice to stir it around. The brown rice was roasted to a “chocolate malt” and will be used in the flavouring of beer. This will give a chocolatey, maltiness and caramel-like taste to beer…Mmmm…yum!
Chocolate Roast Brown Rice.
So far, so good. The internet just went down for 4 hours this afternoon which isn’t too wildly chaotic! We are going to bed early!!
The clouds have been gathering for days and we were wondering when it would start raining. This morning at 8am we heard the distant rumble of thunder, the sky turned from light blue to black in an instant and it poured down. We sighed with relief, the ducks quacked happily, the geese honked and the cat couldn’t care less. Get ready for the flood flies. Switch off all lights at 5pm tonight, close all doors and windows and run into the safety of your bedroom (or truck!). This will help minimise the invasion and hopefully this will mean less work tomorrow. This is the nuptial flight for termites. They leave wings everywhere in the after-math of their awakening.
