The Ants Go Marching...

[elfs]

This "vacation" thing isn't working out too well. I mean, it's not bad, but my sleep schedule is all out of whack and I'm not getting much done. I had hoped by now to have written at least a few thousand words, done a few sketches, continued my studies in Japanese-- all the things I manage to do on the bus ride to and from work and during lunch. Those two hours a day are, more or less, mine. Instead, I find myself distracted by the constant attention young children need, the nuisance attractions of good Internet access and cable television, and the lack of any structure in my daily life.

I managed to re-arrange my story collection so that things make sense to my current way of writing, in series. And I've been spending a lot of time with Yamaarashi-chan, which is nice. I do worry about her, though; she has no sense of "fix it." Kouryou-chan has learned two very important lessons-- when something blocks your progress, try to fix it. If you can't, call a grownup and see if they can help. Yamaarashi-chan, in contrast, goes into operatic protest the moment even the slightest obstactle stands in her way. She was playing a computer game this afternoon and accidentally got it into help mode. Instead of coming to ask me for help, she curled up in a corner and sobbed uncontrollably. If I hadn't come down to see what she was doing, she would probably still be crying now.

I will not, I cannot, countenance a life where drama is more satisfying than accomplishment. Yet that seems to be what Yamaarashi-chan is doing. She knows how to fix things and how to ask for help, but instead she wallows in her stubborn, self-pitying "I don't know how to do this" behavior. Omaha and I have mananged to get her to ask for help eventually, but it's hard. She has had a lifetime of overwhelming examples and she's not old enough to know they're dysfunctional examples.

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The ants have arrived. The weak spot in the house appears to be the kitchen window-- at least twice this week we've found them coming in through seams under the window. It's those damned aluminum frames that expand and contact constantly over the winter. We've vacuumed them up and then sealed them-- damn, but Omaha lays a clean line of caulk. I'm going to go by a hot tub store and get some crushed diatom sand-- supposedly, the sharp edges of the diatoms is very harsh on the ants' antennae and legs.

But now it's time for daily sweeps of the house. And when we go out on vacation later this month, we'll have to find someone to come in and do the surveying for us. We'll also have to spray every egress in the place, and I know we'll come back on Monday to find a trail, probably coming through the bricks in the fireplace we never use.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

OK, is this a limited conflict, or all-out war? If the latter, try this:

Get some Boric Acid powder from your local home improvement's pesticide section. (Assuming you can handle this, and peanuts, go on...) Now get some cheap-ass peanut butter, and likewise some jelly. Mix a goodly amount of the boric acid powder with a dollop each of peanut butter and jelly (don't mix the PB and the J, they need to be separate!) Take a piece of cardboard or other disposable material and put the two dollops on it. Place where ants can find but kids can't. (I don't think the boric is all that toxic to humans, but still.) (The back of that fireplace is a good spot.) Ants eat, take back to queen, regurgitate, and in a few days, dead ant colony.

Why PB & J? There are three main kinds of ants. Ones that eat grease, ones that eat sugar, and ones that eat both. By doing your bait this way, you're ensuring coverage. Boric Acid? Same as the diatom sand, only more so, and hygroscopic to boot. The ants die from dehydration and joint rot... they basically fall apart.

This given to me by a big Scot I used to know who was quite fond of natural and semi-natural pesticides. (He also had a fondness for things that went "boom", but that's a whole 'nother yarn. :) I've used it over the years to good effect.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

I will not, I cannot, countenance a life where drama is more satisfying than accomplishment. Yet that seems to be what Yamaarashi-chan is doing. She knows how to fix things and how to ask for help, but instead she wallows in her stubborn, self-pitying "I don't know how to do this" behavior. Omaha and I have mananged to get her to ask for help eventually, but it's hard.

If it helps at all, this isn't behavior that is limited to Yamaarashi-chan. I've spent several years reinforcing the "ask for help if you need it" concept with my own kids, starting when they were very very small. It seemed that they would go through phases of insecurity and wanting to be nurtured and taken care of, and this was one of the ways it would end up being expressed. I ended up using a combination of negative and positive reinforcement--negative being a firm insistence that dramatic sobbing needed to happen in their bedroom where it wouldn't disturb other people, and positive being a casual, occasional checking in with the kid in question to see how they're doing and reminding/commenting that if they run into trouble they can't fix, to let me know and I'll see what I can do to help. The years of reminders that there's a safety net--me--waiting to catch them if they fall, seems to have ended up making them confident about taking the leap to learn new things.

It's not surprising that Yamaarashi-chan might be feeling insecure and needy just now. This is one of those times when having several parents available to provide nurturing and support is a very good and healthy thing. While it is something to be concerned about, I wouldn't worry too much. Time and patient, consistent reinforcement from you and omahas will go a long way toward fixing this problem.