Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Ferocious flies

Even a romantic lagoon is not in all aspects paradise.
There have been changes in the weather.
When arriving here it was very warm.
But now a lot cooler.

This may be the reason why yesterday an explosion of flies was experienced.
Not the ordinary housefly, but a more aggressive and intelligent one with a more narrow body, sleeker and with dark spots on its wings.

There is great admiration for the inhabitants of the animal kingdom.
But this excludes rats, cockroaches and flies.
OK, mosquitoes too.

For example, the vicinity of the lagoon is ideal territory for snakes.
In the soft sand many tracks can be seen of snakes.
Imprints sometimes as wide as a small man’s arm.
Even yesterday, walking in the area where the Fuso Szulc found its camp, a long hose seemed to have been left behind by former visitors.
But closer inspection revealed it was a long and very black snake.

From the last time spending time at this location, about ten years ago, it was remembered that snakes love this place as well.
One day running was on the dirt road leading to the lagoon and in the excitement of the exercise an enormous rattlesnake was almost not noticed in time.
Stepping on a rattlesnake invites the inhabitant of the animal kingdom to bite the intruder of his privacy.
That means a certain death because hospitals are too far away from the lagoon.

However, snakes are OK.
They have their life and habitat.
And we are only visitors there.
Hence, when getting out of the Fuso Szulc alert level has to be always high.
In all circumstances and at any time.

But flies are intruders themselves.
They come uninvited into the private quarters of humans to irritate, to make the place dirty, to annoy and to act like nervous and upset freaks.
There is nothing more irritating than to feel flies walk on the skin.
They are relatively small and light, but nevertheless their feet touch in a way that is felt very much.

These walks flies make on the human body come with preferences.
They love to get into the ears, on the lips, in the nose and near the eyes.

Now, an alert fervent and loyal blog reader may put in a remark that makes sense: isn’t the Fuso Szulc equipped with bug screens?
Aren’t all windows sliding with bug screens?
Haven’t the roof vents bug screens as well?
And the door?
Isn’t there a screen door?
So, a person inside the Fuso Szulc should be free of flies?
Yes, a person inside the Fuso Szulc should not be bothered by flies due to all those screens.
But unfortunately, the screens are lousy.
Very ineffective are the ones of all the windows and the door.
Reason is that they are badly designed.
Flies land on the outside of the screen and walk to the side-area where the window touches the screen.
A rubber strip is supposed to close the space off.
But the rubber strip is made too short leaving a space open wide enough for flies and other insects to calmly walk into the Fuso Szulc.

The screen door is a joke as well.
Everywhere around it are small open spaces.
And the sliding pane of the screen door has a huge open area.
It’s leaking flies so badly that it might be a better idea to simply leave the screen door open so that flies can fly inside and outside again.

So, is the Fuso Szulc going to be chased away by these horrible attacks of thousands of flies?
Better to leave this beautiful location due to millions of flies?
Give up because of billions of flies?
Hell no!

Fortunately, on board are “fly catchers”.
These are strips on which glue is applied.
There is supposed to come a smell from these strips attracting flies.
They come to check this smell out, land on the strip where they will end their lives in a not so nice way.

Two “fly catchers” are hanging in the Fuso Szulc close to each other.


This because it is believed that in this way a higher chance of catching the flies is achieved.

But the ‘fly catchers” are not highly effective.
The flies are not lured by the smell very much and seem therefore not to be too interested to land there.



Second weapon in the fight against the flies is the most deadly.
A fly swatter.


By now over a hundred flies have been killed with this effective tool.
But it needs skill and determination and total involvement.
And it is an endless job.
After killing hundreds, new troops appear.

Last option is to barricade against the flies.
To seal off all those openings in the windows and doors and roof-vents.
Fortunately on board of the Fuso Szulc is masking tape from a former paint job and one of the tasks today is to make the interior fly free.

Meanwhile, no answer is found to this question:
Why do they want to come inside?
What business do they have in here?
There is no food and it is clean.
Desperately they want to come inside and once in here they only fly around without any purpose.

This issue of the flies need definitely attention.
Early in the morning already the flies start hiking on the face of the innocent sleeper.
Disturbing the beautiful sleep and initiating a mood saturated with irritation.
And later in the morning, working on the different projects on the computer, flies disturb the concentration constantly.

In the past insect plagues have been experienced before.
From this it is known it is only temporary.
Change in wind or temperature may make them go elsewhere.
The bastards.



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