![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijin... but this is the sort of thing one has to accept when one lives in the forest.
This is the front corner of my front yard. I drive through this gate almost every time I go anyplace. I also walk through it as often as not to get the mail. Today I walked through it and saw a lot of bugs flittering around...
Specifically these. When you see them in clouds of tiny white wings on invisible black bodies, they look beautiful... for about three seconds, until you remember what the hell they are.
Lots of 'em, aren't there? But look closer...
And closer...
Yep- termites, swarming. The forest is filled with 'em- and, obviously, so is this pine tree, which technically is still alive. It's at least fifty years old, maybe older... but it had a twin next to it, and it died of... guess what?
And like its twin, this one will likely need to be chopped down so that, when it falls, it doesn't take out the main power lines just the other side of that fence. The tree itself is a good six to seven stories tall- 60-70 ft.
And it's not the tallest pine tree in the yard, either.
Unfortunately, we can't afford an exterminator for the tree. Nor will anything topical, any spray or anything, do anything for the bugs. You have to dig in and saturate the burrows... only, the termites came in through the roots and under the bark, which is hollow and riddled.
So- all we can do is put up with this, especially as these particular bugs have billions upon billions of cousins in the woods all around the house anyway...
This is the front corner of my front yard. I drive through this gate almost every time I go anyplace. I also walk through it as often as not to get the mail. Today I walked through it and saw a lot of bugs flittering around...
Specifically these. When you see them in clouds of tiny white wings on invisible black bodies, they look beautiful... for about three seconds, until you remember what the hell they are.
Lots of 'em, aren't there? But look closer...
And closer...
Yep- termites, swarming. The forest is filled with 'em- and, obviously, so is this pine tree, which technically is still alive. It's at least fifty years old, maybe older... but it had a twin next to it, and it died of... guess what?
And like its twin, this one will likely need to be chopped down so that, when it falls, it doesn't take out the main power lines just the other side of that fence. The tree itself is a good six to seven stories tall- 60-70 ft.
And it's not the tallest pine tree in the yard, either.
Unfortunately, we can't afford an exterminator for the tree. Nor will anything topical, any spray or anything, do anything for the bugs. You have to dig in and saturate the burrows... only, the termites came in through the roots and under the bark, which is hollow and riddled.
So- all we can do is put up with this, especially as these particular bugs have billions upon billions of cousins in the woods all around the house anyway...
