There's a rat in the kitchen - or - It's raining ants
When Jamie and I were deliberating as to whether or not India would be a conducive place to live, Jamie reminded me how hard India could be. Well, we reasoned, we would have money this time around; we wouldn't be taking buses and rickshaws everywhere, we would have a driver; we would have AC; we would have a nice house to escape Delhi in.
"Just how hard to you think it will be on a day to day basis?" I asked. "I can handle India if I can escape from it. I can handle the odd power cut. But I can't handle finding rats and cockroaches in the kitchen every day".
We arrived in Delhi in the cool season. Beyond the unusually hardy mosquito and the odd fly, our house was blissfully insect free. In fact, Delhi was fairly insect free. As it heated up, our house, particularly the back courtyard, became infested with flies. You could see hundreds of them on the plants and sitting on the floor or crawling over the drying laundry. The air in my walk to the market was so thick with flies that I fantasied about an Australian cork hat. Hotter still and the mosquitoes came out although they are not as bad as they will be during the rainy season.
Now the temperature daily reaches 45 degrees. It is too hot for the flies and the courtyard is no longer a fly carnival. It is plainly also getting rather hot for the rats. Jamie and I were sitting watching television when a small grey rat (or possibly a mouse) shot across the living room and under the door to the hall. When there was no repetition of this the following night, I decided it must have been a one off but the day after when I was sitting alone in the house, the rat came right up to me and under the sofa I was sitting on. I ran upstairs to bed.
A day later and I went into the bathroom to get the children's bath going only to find a gigantic cockroach taking a walk on the sink. Opening the kitchen cupboards has become an exercise in conquering fear as more often than not, a small cockroach runs for cover as it is disturbed by daylight. And then, there are the ants.
We have small ants in the cupboards and enormous ants on the floor. I was sitting typing an email when suddenly there was a loud splat. A huge, fat, black ant was crawling across my computer. Splat, another one. I looked up. Where were these ants coming from? They appeared to be falling from the ceiling. I still don't know their source. I think it's the air conditioning unit overhead.
I have called pest control.
Now the difference between Jamie and me or between the Ingrams and Heywoods should you care to extrapolate, is that Jamie would have called this blog 'frangipani, mangoes and geckos'. The rats would have been an afterthought if indeed worth a mention at all. His blog would have been about the fact that our two frangipani trees are in bloom and that there are dozens of fat green mangoes hanging off the beautiful tree in the garden. A portly gecko in the living room is doing his best to combat the mosquitoes. Our area of Delhi is filled with trees groaning under purple, orange and yellow blossoms. The boys are learning to swim. We are in India.
"Just how hard to you think it will be on a day to day basis?" I asked. "I can handle India if I can escape from it. I can handle the odd power cut. But I can't handle finding rats and cockroaches in the kitchen every day".
We arrived in Delhi in the cool season. Beyond the unusually hardy mosquito and the odd fly, our house was blissfully insect free. In fact, Delhi was fairly insect free. As it heated up, our house, particularly the back courtyard, became infested with flies. You could see hundreds of them on the plants and sitting on the floor or crawling over the drying laundry. The air in my walk to the market was so thick with flies that I fantasied about an Australian cork hat. Hotter still and the mosquitoes came out although they are not as bad as they will be during the rainy season.
Now the temperature daily reaches 45 degrees. It is too hot for the flies and the courtyard is no longer a fly carnival. It is plainly also getting rather hot for the rats. Jamie and I were sitting watching television when a small grey rat (or possibly a mouse) shot across the living room and under the door to the hall. When there was no repetition of this the following night, I decided it must have been a one off but the day after when I was sitting alone in the house, the rat came right up to me and under the sofa I was sitting on. I ran upstairs to bed.
A day later and I went into the bathroom to get the children's bath going only to find a gigantic cockroach taking a walk on the sink. Opening the kitchen cupboards has become an exercise in conquering fear as more often than not, a small cockroach runs for cover as it is disturbed by daylight. And then, there are the ants.
We have small ants in the cupboards and enormous ants on the floor. I was sitting typing an email when suddenly there was a loud splat. A huge, fat, black ant was crawling across my computer. Splat, another one. I looked up. Where were these ants coming from? They appeared to be falling from the ceiling. I still don't know their source. I think it's the air conditioning unit overhead.
I have called pest control.
Now the difference between Jamie and me or between the Ingrams and Heywoods should you care to extrapolate, is that Jamie would have called this blog 'frangipani, mangoes and geckos'. The rats would have been an afterthought if indeed worth a mention at all. His blog would have been about the fact that our two frangipani trees are in bloom and that there are dozens of fat green mangoes hanging off the beautiful tree in the garden. A portly gecko in the living room is doing his best to combat the mosquitoes. Our area of Delhi is filled with trees groaning under purple, orange and yellow blossoms. The boys are learning to swim. We are in India.
posted by The Heywoods at 8:10 am
