Root Borer Beetles!

This is what is left of the beetle that Stefan pulled out of the hole:

And here is a picture of a live Root Borer Beetle:

And here is how those little bastards get into the tree’s roots for a feast that will end up killing the tree:

I read up on Root Borer Beetles on the internet and they said that there is not a whole lot you can do about it, because once you start to notice that the tree is dieing, the damage has already been done and the tree will most likely die. Stefan tried to flood them out of their holes by sticking the hose down there and filling the hole with water then backfilling them with dirt, but the next day, the holes reappeared. Obviously the Root Borers thought that Stefan’s water treatment was refreshing, so I decided to get down and dirty! I sprayed inside the hole with roach killer and then filled it in with dirt. It seems to have worked because that hole did not get re-dug.

So if you are noticing palm trees around your property suddenly dieing, check around the base. If you see some large holes, about 1 – 2 inches in diameter, you’ve got root borer beetles eating your palms roots. So far, they have only been eating the palms, but we’ve lost at least 6 already.

Last week a giant fire ant pile popped up on my precious front lawn right next to the walkway I built. At first I was thinking of going and getting some chemicals at Home Depot, but while researching fire ant extermination on the Internet, I found out that fire ants consume populations of fleas, ticks, termites, cockroaches, chinch bugs, mosquito eggs, mosquito larva and scorpions! Now, I don’t like any of the above mentioned creatures so I decided I would rather have the ants on the property (meaning don’t kill the little guys) but get them to move their homestead somewhere else.

Up to this point, I have either tried to kill them all or flood them out of their home with the hose. The hose deal almost never works unless you let it running on their pile for a couple hours, and it still isn’t that successful. With that, I tried a home ready for exterminating fire ants that a buddy told me about a couple weeks ago. I simply poured my extra morning coffee and coffee grounds on the pile for 3 days straight every morning. This morning was day four and they have officially abandoned there ant pile. Hopefully they will move off of the lawn when they build their new home.

I sure hope they are hungry.

We were gardening in the back yard when Summer screamed for me to come over. She found a giant centipede under one of the potted palms we have in the back yard. So, here is what I did. I took a big shovel and chopped it into 4 pieces. I then threw the centipede pieces into the quebrada and held them under water until all of the life was suffocated out of it. I probably saved Summers life.

Fun Centipede Facts to help you sleep at night:

• Centipedes have existed for over 400 million years
• Two Curled Hallow Fangs Inject Venom
• Size ranges from a few millimeters to a foot long
• Found in soil, leaf litter, under stones, deadwood, and inside logs
• Elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment
• Poison claws or forcipules at the fist appendage unites this subterranean species
• They hunt humans for sport (just kidding)

Notice the Penny for Perspective on how big this Centipede is.

I was telling this story to some of the guys at poker the other night and they told me that I shouldn’t have thrown it away, that I should have put it in a jar full of alcohol and made an ‘anti-venom’ in case someone gets stung or bit. If a centipede gets you, you rub the alcohol (that has been marinating a centipede) on the spot and PRESTO, you have homemade Centipede Anti-venom.

A tomato worm?

A punk rock caterpillar

I was working in the living room yesterday and something crawling up the wall caught my eye…A GIANT spider!

Yes, it’s as big as it looks!

I noticed that the spider only has 5 legs, so I suspect that Chichieto the Cat had his way with this spider before releasing him into our house…

I wonder if it’s because we have more bees pollinating our plants now? Or do watermelons take a while to establish themselves?

Today I decided that I have to wear something other then flip flops while working in the yard, so I rifled through my closet and found the perfect pair of shoes for ant battle…

…Knee high leather Adidas. Haha. Bring it on, you little ant bastards!!! Don’t make me breakdance on your little ant colony.

Literally. We spend at least a few hours a week, yanking those little blood suckers off of our poor pups. And, it’s not like we don’t try and protect our dogs, it’s just that nothing seems to work. We have our dogs on Advantix (a monthly treatment) and we are constantly giving them flea/tick bathes. As a matter of fact, we have bathed them twice in the last 3 days and we still spent 30 minutes picking ticks off of the dogs today.

Our friends RT and Nora had to take their dogs to the vet to be sedated in order to remove all of the ticks from them.

Another friend uses tick pesticides intended for horses, on his dog.

I don’t know what else to do. Ticks are so gross!! Does anyone else have any suggestions on how we can keep the ticks off of our dogs in Puerto Rico?!

Tick Solution Update

We found a combo of products that have been keeping the ticks and flees off of the dogs;

1. Frontline drops every month
2. Advantax Flee Collar

This combo has worked like a charm keeping ticks and flea’s off our dogs in Puerto Rico.

Note to Self: Prioritize Air Conditioning for Offices and Master Bedroom before summer time and the real mosquito season is in full effect!

On my first swing of the pickaxe, I hit the BIGGEST centipede I have ever seen. Lucky for me, I chopped it in half, otherwise I could have been in big trouble. I went up to the house and grabbed my camera, but the pictures came out too dark, so I photoshopped this reenactment for you…

Behold! Summer the giant centipede slayer!!!

And by “freaks”, I mean BIG, creepy crawly creatures.

I was working in my office last night (which is downstairs) and I saw something in the doorway out of the corner of my eye. I squinted to get a better look and thought it might just be some construction debris (we have plenty of that…), but upon further inspection, it turned out to be a HUGE toad. Seriously it had to have been a couple of pounds, at least.

I am working late again tonight and I went out to get my shoes that I left on the front porch. Apparently some tarantula had other plans for my pink Pumas, because he was looking longingly at them when I opened the front door.

Screens for the office windows has just moved up the priority list…