Re: big black ants

[Stacey]

Egads.. then you'd have to get CLOSE to it!!!!!!

Stacey (who's been known to run around naked while spraying a spider with
Windex till it drowned)

"Lisa Katt" > wrote in message
...
>
> Jill McQuown skrev i meddelandet
> >...
> wrote:
> >> "Magic Mood Jeep" > wrote:
> >>
> >> > Lizzie was 'chasing' one of those big black ants in the kitchen
> >> > the other day.
> >>
> >> <<shudder>>
> >>
> >> I remember those big black ants. They don't have those in California -
> >> or at least, in the Bay Area, where I live. We get these little tiny
> >> ants. OK, they do travel in huge throngs. But I think I would prefer
> >> to deal with a throng of tiny ants than a single huge one. We had
> >> those in my house when I was young, living on the East Coast. They
> >> freaked me out, and I was often afraid to go to bed, in case one of
> >> them crawled on me at night. Ugh, my skin is crawling just thinking
> >> of it...
> >>
> >> Joyce
> >
> >This is funny! I was showing a woman at work in a catalog this adorable
> >little statuette of a kitten sipping out of a teacup when suddenly she
> >jumped and grabbed her side. I said, "Are you okay?" I'd turned the
page
> >corner down and she spotted a photo of a snake-lamp and just about jumped
> >out of her chair! She said, "Oh, it's that snake." Oh! Even a picture
of
> >one makes her react like that.
> >
> >With me, it's palmetto bugs. They are like huge flying cockroaches,
common
> >to the Southern U.S. I once spotted one crawling across the tile floor
> >while I was in the bathtub. I jumped up, leaped over it and ran naked to
> >the kitchen to grab a can of bug spray. Then I chased it all around the
> >bathroom with the spray, chanting "die, die, die!" That would have made
a
> >hilarious video! :D
> >
> >Jill
> >
> >
> >
>
> Would it not have been easier to just whack it with a shoe or something?
> Elisabet
>
>

[Karen Chuplis]

in article , Stacey at
wrote on 8/10/03 10:06 AM:

> Egads.. then you'd have to get CLOSE to it!!!!!!
>
> Stacey (who's been known to run around naked while spraying a spider with
> Windex till it drowned)

Indeed. I once hairsprayed a wasp to death for the same reason. (blush) I
felt bad, but I could not have it in the room!! Usually I just try to remove
bugs to the outside via a glass and cardboard, but just wasn't doable with a
wasp.

Karen

[Jette Goldie]

"Jill McQuown" > wrote
> This is funny! I was showing a woman at work in a catalog this adorable
> little statuette of a kitten sipping out of a teacup when suddenly she
> jumped and grabbed her side. I said, "Are you okay?" I'd turned the page
> corner down and she spotted a photo of a snake-lamp and just about jumped
> out of her chair! She said, "Oh, it's that snake." Oh! Even a picture of
> one makes her react like that.
>

My mother was the same.

> With me, it's palmetto bugs. They are like huge flying cockroaches,
common
> to the Southern U.S. I once spotted one crawling across the tile floor
> while I was in the bathtub. I jumped up, leaped over it and ran naked to
> the kitchen to grab a can of bug spray. Then I chased it all around the
> bathroom with the spray, chanting "die, die, die!" That would have made a
> hilarious video! :D


Never actually met a palmetto bug - or even a cockroach - in
RL - but I sincerely desire NOT to - EVER. Earwigs are bad
enough.


--
Jette
"Work for Peace and remain Fiercely Loving" - Jim Byrnes

http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

[John Biltz]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 21:35:50 -0700, LOL wrote
(in message >):

> Karen Chuplis > wrote in message
> >...
>> in article , Stacey at
>> wrote on 8/10/03 10:06 AM:
>>
>>> Egads.. then you'd have to get CLOSE to it!!!!!!
>>>
>>> Stacey (who's been known to run around naked while spraying a spider with
>>> Windex till it drowned)
>>
>> Indeed. I once hairsprayed a wasp to death for the same reason. (blush) I
>> felt bad, but I could not have it in the room!! Usually I just try to
>> remove
>> bugs to the outside via a glass and cardboard, but just wasn't doable with
>> a
>> wasp.
>>
>> Karen
>
>
> I'm sorry, but if it has more than 4 legs, is in my house, and doesn't
> stay decently hidden, it's very likely to die. A spider that lurks up
> in the corner of the ceiling in its web can stay; a spider that comes
> stomping its too-numerous legs across the floor towards me just has a
> deathwish, imo.
>
> I very, very rarely use bug spray, because of Mike, but I have found
> that a wide range of cleaning supplies and grooming products will do
> just as good a job. It's kind of alarming, really - stuff I routinely
> apply to *myself* makes bugs keel right over.
>
> ------
> Krista

Probably suffocates them. Bugs breathe through holes in their shell and
don't have lungs. That and the alcohol in most stuff. Think about how
long you would survive buried under half your weight in hair spray.

[[email protected]]

LOL > wrote:

> I very, very rarely use bug spray, because of Mike, but I have found
> that a wide range of cleaning supplies and grooming products will do
> just as good a job. It's kind of alarming, really - stuff I routinely
> apply to *myself* makes bugs keel right over.

Oh, that *is* alarming! :)

I take it Mike isn't much help dispatching with the intruders? Roxy,
Smudge and Lambchop all go after anything that moves in this house - I'm
just lucky I'm bigger than they are.

Joyce

[John Biltz]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 22:14:24 -0700, Hopitus2 wrote
(in message >):

> Now that you mention bizarre dispatching methods for insects, we have dumped
> Clorox on palmetto bugs when proper sprays were not at hand......effective
> and who's to say less humane?

Clorox is chlorine. Chlorine is a poison. Chlorine gas was used as a
weapon in WWI. It purifies water because it kills everything living in
it. I would think it would be pretty effective on bugs.

I've seen ants in Panama an inch long and as thick as my thumb. One bit
one of the guys and we found him unconscious about half and hour later in
shock.

[LOL]

wrote in message >...
> LOL > wrote:
>
> > I very, very rarely use bug spray, because of Mike, but I have found
> > that a wide range of cleaning supplies and grooming products will do
> > just as good a job. It's kind of alarming, really - stuff I routinely
> > apply to *myself* makes bugs keel right over.
>
> Oh, that *is* alarming! :)
>
> I take it Mike isn't much help dispatching with the intruders? Roxy,
> Smudge and Lambchop all go after anything that moves in this house - I'm
> just lucky I'm bigger than they are.
>
> Joyce


He's no help. There are a very few insects that he finds make great
cat toys, but otherwise he either ignores them or flees from them. If
it weren't that a proper slave must help her master uphold his macho
image, I would also have to admit that he is *scared* of spiders. :-P

And I can only assume that my lack of spiracles saves me from my
hairspray. ;-)

------
Krista

[John Biltz]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:52:55 -0700, wrote
(in message >):

> John Biltz > wrote:
>
> > Clorox is chlorine. Chlorine is a poison.
>
> It's bleach, right?
>
> > I've seen ants in Panama an inch long and as thick as my thumb.
>
> Wow <taking out ruler> - my thumb is about 3/4 of an inch (about 2.25
> cm) in width. That would make this an almost *square* ant! Squick!!!
>
> > One bit one of the guys and we found him unconscious about half and
> > hour later in shock.
>
> Was he allergic,

Probably at least a little but he never knew it.

or was it a venomous ant?

Yes but not normally fatal, a bee is venomous, they told us in survival
training it packed a good wallop.

Did he survive?

Yes, I don't know if he would have if he wasn't medevaced though.

Remind me not
> to go to Panama!

Its a jungle there. Triple canopy jungle as a matter of fact.

[Yoj]

> wrote in message
...
> John Biltz > wrote:
>
> > Clorox is chlorine. Chlorine is a poison.
>
> It's bleach, right?

Yes, it's chlorine bleach.

Joy

[[email protected]]

John Biltz > wrote:

>> Was he allergic,
>
> Probably at least a little but he never knew it.

Right, who would know that he's allergic to one-inch-square Panamanian
ants??

Still shuddering,

Joyce