The distractions of the day can also include insects. I kid you not. In fact, though you may find this difficult to believe I swear I am telling you the truth, because I saw it with my own eyes. And I promise you, I did not believe it either until the last second where I could no longer deny the truth of it - the ants turned off the water to the house. Completely. No running water at all in the whole house. Because of ants.
One of the vagrancies of fire ants in particular, besides their vicious bite, is their love of electricity. And in the grass field 200 yards above the house that my dad lives in, where the well is located, the only source of electricity there is the well house and well pump itself. So even though this may be stretching the bounds of believability, the ants piled in there until their mass shorted out the contacts. No electricity, no water.
When I pointed out to my dad that the water was not flowing, I just assumed 1. That the breaker had blown or 2. That the well had run dry. But my dad swore, "those damn ants!" And he hops up off the chair where he was uselessly wasting his life watching what is called "news" in this country, and started issuing instructions for the tools and actions that we would need to defeat the ant empire. At this point I was starting to consider senior citizen homes and remedial therapies for seniors, but I went along with him, because if for no other reason, it made him stop watching the "news".
So we got a tank of compressed air, insect repellant, filters, pliers and a screwdriver. I found the breaker for the well still "on" and flipped it off so that we didn't get accidentally shocked. Fast forward to my dad using the compressed air to blow away all the ants, and then turn the power back on and viola we had water again! Never underestimate the power of a distraction, even if it is an insect. And let me tell you about the guinea wasp nest that we dealt with next. . . .
One of the vagrancies of fire ants in particular, besides their vicious bite, is their love of electricity. And in the grass field 200 yards above the house that my dad lives in, where the well is located, the only source of electricity there is the well house and well pump itself. So even though this may be stretching the bounds of believability, the ants piled in there until their mass shorted out the contacts. No electricity, no water.
When I pointed out to my dad that the water was not flowing, I just assumed 1. That the breaker had blown or 2. That the well had run dry. But my dad swore, "those damn ants!" And he hops up off the chair where he was uselessly wasting his life watching what is called "news" in this country, and started issuing instructions for the tools and actions that we would need to defeat the ant empire. At this point I was starting to consider senior citizen homes and remedial therapies for seniors, but I went along with him, because if for no other reason, it made him stop watching the "news".
So we got a tank of compressed air, insect repellant, filters, pliers and a screwdriver. I found the breaker for the well still "on" and flipped it off so that we didn't get accidentally shocked. Fast forward to my dad using the compressed air to blow away all the ants, and then turn the power back on and viola we had water again! Never underestimate the power of a distraction, even if it is an insect. And let me tell you about the guinea wasp nest that we dealt with next. . . .
