Tuesday, July 28, 2015

A carpet spot and ants


I noticed our first carpet stain, a dime sized smudge from some unknown source. It told me I was home. Dirt happens at home.  Our domicile is currently Jackson, about 45 miles east of Sacramento. The RV park is part of a casino here, The Jackson Rancheria. It is one of the highest rated parks in CA and the reasons are obvious once here. Clean, well groomed, wonderful views of the Sierra foothills, great pool area, nice golf putting green and…a bocce court! Places like this make you feel that you are staying at a resort hotel, but, as said above, we are home.

Oh…ants.  In the course of researching our venture I came across numerous references to pest management.  One stated it is not a matter of if; it is when you get invaded by ants. Prior to this camp we were at Rancho Seco, a very nice park managed by the Sac Municipal Utility District, which goes by the entertaining acronym of SMUD. I noticed when setting up there was much ant activity. I packed diamotaceous earth for these incidents. It is a white powdery “dirt” that is left by the process of fill and evaporate in certain seasonal or rain event lake beds. Many insects will not cross it, ants included. It is non toxic, the only warning being do not breath the dust.  So I lightly dusted the area and it worked for a couple of days. Then, doing my now habitual walk around Vilia, I saw the marching column hiking along our power cord. Time for the Raid! But, enough had invaded that we are still finding the occasional straggler a week later. As long as there is no queen around, I am ok to be the mighty conqueror and employ the thumb squash. 

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