The Terminex Guy Came Yesterday

Well, David doesn't work for Terminex, but he is a pest eradication specialist. He didn't arrive in a truck with a picture of a Black Mamba being crushed on it, he walked up to the gate with his gear in a small canvas bag. He comes three times a year to spray for mosquitoes, and, since he works for many others in the Milimani Estate, we don't see that many mosquitos.

While he was spraying outside for mosquitos (he also sprayed inside - which necessitated a one-hour evacuation to our front porch), he noticed that we were beginning to have an ant problem (have I mentioned how BIG African black ants are?). The ants were beginning to push up mounds in our lawn and next to the house. We'd noticed that we were seeing more of them in the kitchen. Since he was on the topic of pests we asked about the bees that were apparently creating a hive in the eaves of our house. No problem, he said, he could take care of it.

I drove him downtown to get the poisons he needed for the ants and the bees. That done, we let him get on with it. He dug into the ants' nests and then sprayed them - this picture is of him working on an ant nest. To get the bees he had to use a homemade ladder to get high enough to spray them. To remove the honey combs, he had to climb up on the roof and work from there (I wish I had a photo!). We were hoping for some wild honey, but apparently we got to the hive before they got into production. He said that he did one home and got 2 liters of honey...that must have been a really BIG hive!

He gives good service - he came back this morning to make sure he got the ants, and he'll be back next week to check on the effectiveness of the mosquito control.

Total cost? About $50.00, of which half was for the chemicals.