Ant Wars

View of Queens Creek.  And the arsenal for the War on Ants. 

Once upon a time,
in a land far away,
in a tiny little county
on the Chesapeake Bay,

lived one ant,
two ants, three ants, four,
ten kajillion ants, sixteen bazillion ants,
ants, ants galore!

There also was a Woman
named Chesapeake Bay
whose ant frustrations
were impossible to allay.

She killed and she sprayed
and she set out those traps.
And the ants,while they laughed,
said snidely, "We're not saps."

Just when she thought
she would never live ant-free,
she was contacted by Terro,
a most wonderful company.

Terro sent her an arsenal
that squelched that ant laughter,
and Chesapeake Bay Woman and Terro
lived happily ever after.

Without ants. The End.

Ant Season runs from January through December February through the summer in Mathews County. Terro Anti-Ant Experts (aka Terroists) suggested that in some areas of the country a single approach such as setting only indoor traps is not enough, and a multi-faceted approach must be employed.  The solution that works best for me is a combination of the following:  plenty of indoor liquid bait traps; several of the larger outdoor traps set around the perimeter of the house and near the doors; and tons of spray all around the doors, window sills, electrical sockets, baseboards, plumbing fixtures and armpits.

In Mathews you can get Terro at Moughons (aka Sutton and Kline).

Disclaimer:  Chesapeake Bay Woman was not paid one cent to endorse Terro. She just feels very strongly about its ant fighting capabilities--but only if you use the multi-faceted approach described above. 

May the Terro be with you and the ants be gone.

View of some Mathews County daffodils.  And products from my BFF Terro.

More From Williams Wharf

Here are some more shots from Williams Wharf.  Starting off broad, they narrow in focus with each picture.

(You likely would have figured all that out if I hadn't mentioned it. Sometimes I think all I do is state the obvious, especially at work.  However, you'd be surprised how many people wouldn't know the obvious if it bit them square between the eyes don't see the obvious and thank me when I point things out to them. Because I'm unable to discern who can see what, I always err on the side of Explanation Overkill.  Let's return to what was supposed to be a brief blog post, already choked out by Explanation Overkill  parenthetical nonsense.)

Sometimes when I come home from a photo-taking journey I wonder how it's possible to take so many pictures of the same place. A fifteen minute spree can produce hundreds of shots.

The answer lies in all the zooming.

(My poor, tired, addled brain, which only received 4 hours of sleep last night, is now playing Aretha Franklin's "Who's Zoomin' Who?" as background music.  What a great song. I might be sleep deprived, but I still know good music even if I'm the only one who hears it  when I hear it. Click here if you want to take a trip back to 1985.)

This one's my favorite of all, but I wouldn't like it as much without the background music from Aretha Franklin context of the photos above.

Have a great day.


p.s. The ants have returned, and it's hardly even March.  I'm preparing for heavy warfare and am reasonably confident I have just the arsenal to defend my house once and for all against this killer mutant Mathews brand of ants.  Stay tuned for details. 

Tuesday Trio

Last week the Mathews cross country team had a meet over in Lancaster, which is across the Rappahannock River just past Kilmarnock.  

("Just past" is a relative term which around here means "just keep on driving, you're not even close.")

This beautiful home stands in a soybean field just before you get to Lancaster High School. I had pulled over on the side of the road, as I always sometimes do, to take these shots from the car.  

Lancaster evidently isn't accustomed to Chesapeake Bay Woman sorts of photographers, the sorts who are extremely paranoid prone to spontaneous roadside stops to take pictures of the lovely scenery.  

They are a very, very suspicious bunch, these Lancasteronians.  An older gentleman gave me a very solid stare from his pickup truck as he drove by.  In the meantime two ladies in their nearby yard paced nervously, one hand over the mouth, the other on the hip, staring.  I felt certain that they were all plotting a siege it was about time for me to put away the camera and head on up the road.  

Anyway, the cross country meet was very successful, and the team has had an outstanding season thus far.  The next two meets (on Wednesdays) will be held at Beaverdam in Gloucester.

In other high school related events, last night I attended a PTA meeting to discuss various fundraising efforts.  As the meeting was coming to an end, the ladies seated at my table started chatting about this and that. All of a sudden, faster than a Sunday shopper trying to get in and out of Food Lion before church lets out,  the topic went from the prom to fruit fly infestations  and the various concoctions and methods that have led to their successful annihilation.  I confessed to waving a white flag a long time ago since the fruit flies have actually set up shop in my icebox (aka refrigerator). Seriously.  Just ask the PTA ladies.  

While most were discussing the effectiveness of vinegar or bleach on the insidious insects, one very clever parent-- a newcomer to Mathews--described her own surely-soon-to-be-patented fruit fly trap.  She places a piece of banana in the bottom of a glass and covers the top with a coffee filter.  Then, when enough are collected, she takes the whole thing outside and shoots it with a machine gun.  

OK, I made up that part about the machine gun, but that's what I would do if I had a machine gun.  And knew how to use it. Even so, the flies would still be back in my house, pointing and laughing.  

No, she takes them outside andshoos them towards her neighbor's house  turns them loose.  I, for one, was very impressed.

Even though it's no longer Ant Season, I was all set to launch into my ant infestation woes and the miracles of Terro, but it was time to go home.  Maybe next time.  

Only in Mathews.

Three Things

Welcome to Thursday, also known here as Three Thing Thursday, where we share three random thoughts.

Ready? Let's begin.

1. The photo above, which I definitely may have posted before, dates back to June of 2009. A sailboat was moored just off Gwynns Island and I was admiring the view from the beach. The more I stare at this, though, the more I feel there should be water spilling out of the lower left corner. It's more than slightly off kilter, much like the photographer.

2. This week, because I had nothing better to do, I took a completely different route home from Williamsburg where I work. There are only two possible ways - across the York River at Yorktown and down 17 or through West Point and over the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers. The typical York River/Rte. 17 way is shorter mileage-wise, but here lately due to mutant drivers construction and mutant drivers, it's been taking about 15 minutes longer than usual.

By taking this alternate route through West Point I arrived home 5-10 minutes earlier even though it's about 10 miles longer distance-wise. However, due to being a mutant driver a creature of habit, I probably will stick with the shorter, more tedious route. Don't ask me why. No doubt it's the same reason I stuck with dial-up internet as long as I did. To get to the bottom of these mysteries would require a trained psychological professional some deep introspection.

3a. Does anyone want some CATS white raspberries? I have a cluster of bushes which, after being all docile and polite for 4+ years, have suddenly taken over my back patio off like wildfire. I can't pick them fast enough, and they're absolutely delectable.

3b Warning: Picking white raspberries can be harmful to your psyche health because ants, wasps, chiggers, ants and ants also love white raspberries. When you've lived for nigh on 10 years in the same house as insects, reaching a hand blindly into a thorny raspberry bush teeming with creepy crawlies will make you scream and seek a trained professional can be challenging.

3c. Speaking of ants and aren't I always the folks at Terro have finally sent me the silver bullet--at least it's working for the time being. Details will be forthcoming.

Now it's you're turn to share three (or more) things. Whatever you want, anything at all.