Sometimes I go through spells when I have nothing to say. It’s just normal daily life here, nothing unusual happening. I ride my bike, putter in the yard, spend time with friends, do the usual errands and chores, paint a bit, nothing really worth talking about. I’ve had a cold and the cough has hung on forever, which though I didn’t feel sick must have been sapping my energy. I thought I had lost all the conditioning from my bike trip but yesterday, finally, I went riding and felt strong. I powered all the way home feeling like my old self, and it was wonderful!
And, of course, as things go, since I organized these photos and mentally wrote this blog post I have some new things to talk about, all, so they will be coming soon.
What else? One of the banana trees is flowering so we’ll have more of those great red bananas in a couple months. The war on the ants in the house has been pretty much successful though we are still vigilant. They were sending armies from the yard into the house which we have stopped, but I think they continue to live in the attic because just as we think they are conquered, we spot some a few days later using a trail that leads upwards. We still have some of the tiny little ants that scurry around like crazy in the kitchen though, so we are working on them. Yesterday Joel discovered they had set up housekeeping in a package of saran wrap! There are so many types of ants here and it’s really interesting to see how they all work so hard for the good of their colony. They can’t live in the house though. That’s our space.
Oh, and the lizard eggs, can’t forget them! We were cleaning one day probably 1 1/2 months ago and found some gecko eggs. They are little round, white eggs about the size of a large pea. I put them in a dish on my table and a couple mornings ago, I noticed something brown sticking out of one. I picked up the dish and a tiny gecko burst out of the egg, jumped down to the table with some egg shell still on it’s head, and dashed under that little blue box from the moth photo above! Too bad I didn’t have a camera within easy reach because when I came back with one, the gecko had left and I couldn’t find it again. The next day another egg was open and empty. I have two more eggs though, so maybe I’ll get to see it happen again.
The weather has been great for the most part, an occasional hot day but usually pleasant and breezy with cooling rains late in the day. The rain keeps everything lush and green, and I like this better than the dry season.
That’s about it for the moment. Even the ordinary days always bring something interesting.
The Panama Adventure 
Home Made Ant & Cockroach Repellant
Buy packages of Boric acid from Arrocha or pharmacy. They’re 25 cents per small packet.
Place the powder in a glass jar. add 1/2 cup of sugar and pour
about a quart of hot water into the jar. Stir until it’s dissolved completely and add cotton balls. Once it cools, place these cotton balls on jar lids or tin foil, etc…put all around your house; cupboards, counters, — even outside on your terrace. (Real Cotton Balls, synthetics don’t work nearly as well)
You can put several in the trunk of a car.
In 3 days you will have no more ants and cockroaches.
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Thanks! Yes, I have used this boric acid solution with quite a bit of success. When I was away though things got out of hand and I felt I needed stronger measures. Thanks for reminding me of this. I think now that things are so much better your solution would keep things under control quite well if they decide to come back.
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What we did in the Caribbean and also here in Boquete, we put a little bit of sugar and 10 ft from there very small pieces of meat. There they come and you see where they coming from. Pouring hot water on them.
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Sugar and meat? Interesting but both things they like. I am getting very good at tracking them to where they are coming from but unfortunately, they are usually in the ceiling where hot water wouldn’t work so they get the spray.
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We just came back from 2 weeks in your area, mostly Boca Chica … love the rainy season there!!! If we ever do make it out there to live, would love to bike with you 🙂
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Boca Chica is awesome, one of my favorite areas.
We can definitely go biking. I’ll show you some of my favorite routes 🙂
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Can’t wait to get back to Panama Kris. This time you & I need to go for a girls day out!
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Oh yes definitely! We could do a fabulous girls day
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Hi Kris, when you say nothing going on, you still manage to mention all the neat stuff you’ve been into. Any glass cleaner with ammonia will take care of ants. I rode my bike everywhere all thru my 20s. Thank God I had a laundrymat just across the back alley. Books from the library, food & beer were most often in my basket. When Bill & I move to the area, I’d love to bike with you, too.
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Oops, forgot I was on Bill’s fb site, as I’m looking at my own email, lol. Oh, well, it’s just me, Jill. Hope you’re doing well. I love the bug pics, especially with your captions.
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Never thought about glass cleaner. It seems that would be less toxic than most of the bug stuff. Thanks for the tip.
We will go biking too!
Hi to Bill. ~~~~waving
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Waving back atcha! We’re going today to deliver some of the great coffee we got as gifts from Boquete for some friends here in Georgia.
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Sounds good. Have a great weekend!
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Glad you’re felling better. Strap that camera to you so you have it for the hatching of the gecko eggs. That would be a very awesome shot.
We have ants here too. I think they’re a problem everywhere. They’re survivors, no matter what you do. Yesterday I went and got some Black Flag from the hardware store and will try that on them. It sure did the trick around the house for the black widows and the other nasty spiders we get here. This formula is for ants. We have several varieties too.
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I’m keeping an eye on the other two gecko eggs so maybe I’ll get lucky.
Yes I think you are right about the ants. They are everywhere. When there are no winters to slow them down though, they have more time to be fruitful and multiply. Good luck with yours.
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Kris,
I also heard today at work that spreading cornmeal around or directly on the ant nests will help the problem. So this is just FYI. I wanted to share. I haven’t tried it yet, but am going to.
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Really? Interesting. I’m trying to think if cornmeal is something they were getting in to but maybe it wasn’t because I don’t remember it in the freezer, unlike the flour, breakfast cereal, and a lot of other things. Only problem with this is we usually don’t know where the nests are. We think they are somewhere up above the ceiling. But, things are so much better now and we rarely see them in the house, and only occasionally in the trash which we keep just outside.
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I loved the photo of the moth on your bike and the gecko egg story. My blog too is occasional, not regular, based on what occurs to me to write about.
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I enjoy your blog. You have a way of making a person feel like they have seen and experienced a place through your eyes.
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Oh wonderful suggestions for getting rid of the ants. We can’t leave our cat food out anymore because the ants go crazy carrying off the little nuggets of the cat food. When we were in the states, we bought the ant boxes where the ants go in, take the liquid to their nests, and it kills all the ants. So far, much better, but we have to put the liquid in places where our cats can’t get it.
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Oh dear, ants in your house too, eh? Good luck with that. It seems once they have discovered a source of food it takes a lot to discourage them from coming back.
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I think it’s when “nothing’s going on” that one has the time to slow down and pay attention to all the little things going on around one – like you so obviously have done, thus gracing us with this post. Love the visuals created in my head with the gecko eggs hatching.
Thanks Kris!
Also, glad you’re feeling better. If you’ve never tried ginger tea, here’s how to make some the next time you’re feeling under the weather (particularly with colds and coughs):
Grate or chop about half an inch of fresh ginger into a tea cup, put in your tea bar and a slice of fresh lemon, pour boiling water over and let steep for five minutes. Remove tra bag and sweeten with a spoonful of honey. Of course if you use loose tea leaves instead of tea bags, that’s even better.
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Another friend also recommended the ginger tea. I’m back to coughing again so maybe I should give it a try. They sell fresh ginger at the veggie market and I have raw honey from this area too. Thanks for the tip.
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Get well Kris – do try the ginger tea. They very recently discovered that ginger has antiviral properties (among other benefits). Glad to hear they sell fresh ginger in the market there. If you don’t use much of it often it’s hard to keep fresh – I found that grating it all up, flattening it in a small plastic bag, scoring it into squares- then freezing the bag – makes it possible to break off a desired amount when you need some, and popping the bag back into the freezer. For those with freezers that is. In India we kept our ginger harvest fresh by covering the rhizomes in sand in a round earthenware pot, and keeping the pot in a cool place.
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Thanks for the tip about freezing it. I’ll definitely try that.
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You’re welcome!
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