Tenting The House - The Backstory

One night we were sitting in our big green chairs, having an evening of what passes for Domestic Bliss here.  Lights were on, the TV was glowing, and we were preoccupied with a conversation.  Chattering back and forth stopped when Kevin was dive bombed by "A Bug".

This is South Florida.  Wilton Manors.   We're technically not "in the tropics" but it's close enough to not matter.   The freeze line is 15 miles North of us in Boca Raton.  We're used to having wildlife crawl into the house and not give it a second glance.

Trying to ignore The Bugs, we shooed it away as it banged its little insect head against the twists of the Compact Florescent Lamp above our heads.

It's not really that uncommon to have a moth here doing exactly that.   They come and go as they will, and you learn that when you live here, it means to keep all your food in jars, double sealed and set away safely.

I have had the pleasure of watching those bugs get eaten by lizards and geckos.  I'm completely entertained by those.  There is a window that looks out of the kitchen, into the Lanai and out into the backyard beyond.  The light from the living room will glow out that window drawing outdoor bugs to it.  Moths will bang themselves senseless against it while translucent Geckos will come by and feed on them every night.

They also help to keep the population of ants down, but we do have to spray for them fairly regularly.  Recently the ants got past that passive nuisance phase.  We had two different types of ants living in the house.  Ghost Ants are tiny creatures that threatened to pick up my coffee jar and move it as it got in their way.  These are much smaller than any ant I have ever experienced and simply would not die when we sprayed the over the counter stuff from the big box stores.

The other kind of ant lived in the holes in the metal frame around the windows.  They would make great lines of black dots leading to whatever they find interesting as a food source.   We couldn't keep them down either as they became more insistent.

We had the exterminator by twice to get rid of them but they just kept coming back.

The final straw was the Light Bulb Bugs.  You see, they were termites.   We had them come by for a visit.

The geometry of the house is such that that light bulb over Kevin's Chair will shine out into the hallway and out into the master bedroom.  The master bedroom looks out into the backyard.  There was just a little bit of wood around the window there.  That was where the termites nested.

Having the exterminator back, they did a more thorough inspection.  In fact, we were dissatisfied with the old exterminator company getting indifferent work here.  We moved to a much better group of people who took a much more professional level of care on the house.

Hugh Turner was recommended to us as a company that has "Been around a long time" and would "take care of us".  They did that well.   The report we got back was that there were termites in that frame and in some of the nooks and crannies above that spot up in the roof.

In short, it was time to tent the house.

Here there are two types of people.  Those who have termites and those who will have them.  We had them.  We will have them again.  It is all a part of living in South Florida.