Fun on the Bayou!!!

  Yes, we are having fun on the Bayou!  It is that time of year when things get festive and we decorate the yard with lights!  We frolic about with cans in hand and have a grand old time!!  What fun!  At least, that is the way my friend, Darlene, was describing the events of the evening.  While talking on her phone, she was telling someone "Guess what my friend does for fun on the Bayou??"  Yep, fun.  So fun.

  After an afternoon of fishing, she and I headed back to the Little Bayou House for a bite to eat and then pulled our rocking chairs over to stare out over the Bay.  It was then that I noticed a bug flit in front of the light.  Uh, oh.  LIGHTS OUT!!! WINDOWS DOWN!!  BUG SPRAY IN HAND!!!  The termite swarms have started their nightly flights.  Ugh!  For the next half hour, a preplanned routine was set in motion.  First, every light in the house was doused.  Next, all windows were tightly shut.  Then, a shop light was toted down the hillside and set on bright.  Finally, cans of bug spray were aimed at any termite that dared show its nasty self inside the house.  I HATE TERMITES!

A shop light can draw the termites far from the house!

  The shop light does a fine trick of drawing the critters away from the house.   Once the bugs hit the hot bulb, most of them die instantly.  Others will fly in a huge circle around the light.  It is a cyclone of termites!  These can easily be exterminated while they are circling.  But in the meantime, if you are not careful, termites begin crawling on you.  They get on your clothes, crawl on your skin and become entangled in your hair.  It is just about the nastiest feeling there is but there is not much we can do other than endure.  Since Hurricane Katrina, the swarms have become worse and worse until now the critters can shut down businesses, end ballgames and cause people to run inside.  The entire Coast sees massive swarms of the critters around any light source so we have all learned "Lights Out!"  Some neighborhoods have gone so far as to have not only their Neighborhood Watch groups but, also, "Termite Watch" groups that speed dial everyone with the bad news.  

  For the next month, most evenings will see us sitting in the dark with a fly swatter in hand.  Its a way of life, here on the Bayou.  Yes, indeed!  We do have fun on the Bayou!