Oh, Rats!

This has been an eventful week with uninvited ‘guests’ at the Timothy Centre.  It started off with a big rat hunt in our house after we found telltale evidence of rodents (holes chewed through the mosquito screens on the windows, droppings, wood shavings under the door).  We had been using our spare room as a combination office, work room, and storage room so it was an ideal place for a rat to make into a home.  Armed with brooms and boards and with the back up help of our faithful dog, Joey, we went at it!  After a wild time of chasing, bopping and banging we managed to finish it off…and then had to put the room back together (and buy a new broom after demolishing the one we used as a weapon)!  

The next few days were spent dealing with thousands of flying ants who emerged from their underground nests as the rains came.  They are attracted to the security lights on the property at night so the stairways and front porches of the houses were littered with piles of discarded wings and wingless bodies.  Many of them somehow managed to find their way into the houses so there was lots of sweeping up in the morning.  The bright side of this is that many of the local people here love to eat these delicacies as protein snacks!  You often see the school children along the roads crouching over an ant hill with great excitement as the ants fly out…and they pop them in their mouths as if they were eating popcorn!

Here is the view through the windshield of the vehicle as I was starting to head into town….