Laborious Critters

28 Comments on Laborious Critters

1. I guess the critters don’t have EBTs and ObolaPhones …

   Beautiful, as always.

   izlamo delenda est …

2. The lead pix= looks like leaf cutter ants.
   They do not eat the leafs.They grow a fungus
   on the leafs and eat the fungus.Only a certain
   type of tree leaf will grow the only type of fungus
   they eat.I saw these critters in Costa Rica.

3. Oh my gosh that tiny little pony! I want one! Wonder how my maltipoos would like it?

   Thanks, Claudia!

4. And they all work harder than I do these days. (Retired)
   Thanks for the wonderful pix, Claudia. I always look forward to your Sunday morning posts because they always make me smile.

5. The tiny ant is one of God’s most amazing insect creations. Talk about industrious. Ever see one just sitting around twittling its thumbs? No. They are always doing something.

   Kind of feel bad about that jelly-Borax mix I recently poisoned a couple hundred of them with. Hey, it’s my kitchen, my rules. lol

   Thanks Claudia.

6. #foxesaintgotjobs

7. Notice not a single government worker qualifies.

   Your the best Claudia. Thank you.

   ————

   Unruly, I just can’t feel bad for insects. Rats do get me a little bit, but I get over it and sometimes have to finish them off personally. They are pretty intelligent and I understand why they become pets for some.

   I have one reluctant, occasional, customer that will not let me do anything if he has to let me in or write the check. His wife hired me to take care of ants that were ruining the pool equipment a couple of years ago and he has a strict no-kill policy if he has any say about it. Not even ants. I had to come back when she was home. sigh. He still refuses to do anything about the rats in his attic.

   This year, mosquitoes were not only all around the house but were in almost every room.

   ZIKA THREAT!

   Suddenly, his family’s health trumped his no-kill policy. lol

   1

8. Dadof4 , that guy sounds like a California transplant.

   Ants get in the telephone company’s connection box out on the highway and short it out when it rains. I have so much noise on my line right now it’s hard to hear the person on the other end.

9. His no-kill thing is religious. Devout Jew. I find it odd because about 40% of my customer base is the Jewish community he is in. And he’s the only one like that. The rest, including a dozen or so Rabbis, have no problem with pest control.

   In fact, I have to reign them back a bit. Not all insects are bad and I have to convince people all the time that a sterile environment is bad all around and invites problems we call “secondary infestations” – insects that are normally kept in check by the natural predators they want me to kill.

10. Dadof4, he must not be reading his Torah. Lots of animal sacrifice in Leviticus. And somewhere in there it says something about having to smash a pot if you let “creeping things” come in contact with it. Sure they killed a lot of creepers rather than have to smash pots all the time.

11. Like I said. Makes no sense to me.

    It’s a “respect all life” thing, he says.

    He must live with a lot of angst. Personally, it comes across as a touch of mental illness.

12. An inspiration to welfare collectors everywhere!

13. This is a great reminder that every living creature of worth, works to provide for itself. Thanks Claudia!

    Unruly Refugee – right there with you on the ants. On the one hand, I admire their industriousness…until I spot them in my house. Then the Terro syrup comes out! 😀

14. Aunt Liz, I hear that Terro works pretty good.
    🙂

15. Dadof4 – You ain’t heard nuthin’ about “respect for all life” until you’ve talked with a Jain about ahimsa.

16. I killed two bats last month. Called the bat guy to see if I have an infestation (thank God I didn’t). Very interesting man, says that if you try to outsmart a bat you’ll lose every time. Bats can enter a dwelling through a half inch opening, they can sense drafts and will follow it. He used to kill over a hundred bats a day at a shopping mall in upstate NY. Went up into the mall structure and would vacuum them off the rafters and roof supports with a powerful leaf blower. Had a steel impeller that would grind them up in the blower and spew the remains into a sack. The bats love shopping malls because of all the parking lot lights. Insects swarm to the lights and the bats feast and at dawn fly right to the mall to sleep.

    He’s incredibly busy, gets at least a half dozen calls a call for the critters. Not a line of work I would go for.

17. These are fantastic, Claudia.

    What is that pretty yellow bird? Is that her nest? Unusual.

18. @riverlife, that’s a Black headed weaver from Africa. The website I got the image from is http://gesser-images.com.

    And, yes, that is her nest.

19. Tirelessly laying the groundwork.

20. Terro does, in fact, work well, although slow. It’s just sugar water and a borate solution. Nothing fancy about it. Like Unruly’s home made bait. I stock my trucks with the six pack reservoir version instead of the bottled kind. Home Depot or Lowes has them. The design of the station is what helps it be effective long term – it prevents it from drying out too fast and Odorous House Ants need a lot over a long time if you can’t treat their trails with Fipronil <- preferred method.

    Uncle Al, I feel like I should be OMMM-ing after reading that. lol

    Interesting they adopted that ancient symbol the NAZIs took for their own.

    Sig94 – grinding bats? ew.

    In 30+ years I have only needed to deal with a few oddly placed bats. Clinging to a wall by the staircase of a parking lot. Would love to get an owl call. Get paid for excluding it and get paid for their pellets. There's gold in them thar pellets. There is a market for them http://www.pelletsinc.com/

21. Uncle Al – If ahimsa includes plants, how can they be vegetarians and eat them? Things that make you go hmmmm.

22. No cats! Bwwaaaaa!

23. @riverlife_callie – Beats me about the plants. Seems like all they could eat would be salt. Oh, now that I think about it, maybe they can eat road kill and dung. )-:

24. @Hambone – I’m sure Claudia searched for photos cats performing some kind of useful labor, you know, like yoked into little teams to pull kids around in wagons or something. But none of the photos were good enough to make the cut. (-:

25. Hambone and Uncle Al, the only cat I know of with a real job was a co-worker’s cat. He was deaf (the friend, not the cat). He had a service cat to alert him when stuff happened (phone ring, someone at the door, smoke alarm, etc.).

    I’ll have to remember that for next year! hehe

26. Thanks Claudia. I’ll have to show the pics of the dogs with jobs to my Sarah. Maybe she’ll get a hint. Naw, she’ll just turn over for a tummy rub.

27. So neat! Good job, Claudia. The lil donkey is so cute!

28. Cats knock stuff off counters so you don’t eat them and get fat. 😀