Die! Die! Die!

[Angela]

Sanctuary in her circus clothes. Finally going to get rid of those pesky sugar ants.

 

[Walter P]

Seems a little extreme Ang. Did you try regular pest control techniques first?

Walt

 

[rsmith]

Damn!

 

[Angela]

Seems a little extreme Ang. Did you try regular pest control techniques first?

Walt

Yes, for years. When the termites began to swarm this year and I found them in the aft deck cabinetry, I brought in the big guns.

 

[captddis]

I feel your pain!

 

[Dan Mapes]

I thought you were trying to get rid of sanitary hose odors. Wow. Was the boat out for other work as well?

 

[oldawg]

I thought you were trying to get rid of sanitary hose odors. Wow. Was the boat out for other work as well?

The gas will probably work for that too! Had my house tented a few years ago......killed everything....no insects, not much dust (kills dust mites)..even killed the grass next to the house.

 

[Fanfare]

Ang--Don't sleep in tonight!!

 

[tom5518]

Sanctuary in her circus clothes. Finally going to get rid of those pesky sugar ants.

So where is squirt staying during all this?

 

[magnawake]

I havent seen stuff like this until we went down to Florida and worked. They said the formosa termites were hard to get rid of. Seems like they must be if thats the extreme you need to go to. However, the sugar ants I have been able to keep out of my house by the liquid drops I placed in various spots on a little cardboard piece. I've seen them eating around the bait like a round table. Then all of a sudden they are gone. They dont come back for a long time. Seems like Formosa termites would just fly back in during swarm season. Good luck with that problem.

 

[Angela]

Gosh, I never thought of the stuff I cannot see, i.e. dust mites. That’s fantastic! Dave, at least you got to do yours in the water. As a liveaboard, preparing for this has been a royal pain. All food had to be removed, as well as personal items such as medicine, vitamins, and anything anyone would put in their mouth (toothpaste, for example), as well as all the cat toys (anything he would put in his mouth).

Unbeknownst to the termite company, I did dig up some bugs from Susan’s yard, put them in a ventilated jar, and placed the jar in a bilge area during the morning of the tenting. Before I pay the balance for the tenting, I need to ensure my “planted” bugs are dead - that’s how I will know the gas reached everywhere and did it’s job. I do not want to haul out again if it didn’t get done right. Likewise, the exterminator said he was putting in some extra gas because he didn’t want to have to do this one over, either.

“Is she out for other work?” Well, she is now...no sense in wasting a haul out and not throwing more dough at the old girl. I could not find anywhere to go to do the tenting in the water. She was coming due for paint soon, but that was just at the water line. Still...while she’s out, I’m putting two coats of Micron 66 on the hull and a third coat at the water line. I’m taking all the underwater metals down to bare metal, applying a proper lay-up of Interprotect 2000e, and then painting all of the metals with Interlux Ultra. I don’t want an ablative paint on the running gear, nor on the strainer screens on the scoops, knowing the AC runs just about non-stop most of the year.

We also decided, once we pulled the strainer scoops (the guys around here call them “speedos”) off a few days ago, that the speedos we put on the AC intakes 2 years ago are just too small. I’m up-sizing all of them. Bigger is better! I’m also replacing the large Dynaplate. The original one just didn’t look right - it didn’t look like the others. It was very pitted and rough, and the color was different from the others. It looked like that the last couple of times, too, and this time around, I want to put on a new one and be done with it.

 

[Angela]

I havent seen stuff like this until we went down to Florida and worked. They said the formosa termites were hard to get rid of. Seems like they must be if thats the extreme you need to go to. However, the sugar ants I have been able to keep out of my house by the liquid drops I placed in various spots on a little cardboard piece. I've seen them eating around the bait like a round table. Then all of a sudden they are gone. They dont come back for a long time. Seems like Formosa termites would just fly back in during swarm season. Good luck with that problem.

Fortunately, we don't have formosa termites - these have been confirmed to be drywood termites, and this is how you get rid of them. Trying to spot kill them is a waste of time, chemicals, and money.

Yes, they can swarm again and re-infest, but that's just a risk of living down here. We just roll the dice. The treatment has no residual effect. If they come back with a year's time, the exterminator will fumigate again at no charge. I would still be on the hook for the haul out, though.

The fact is, they are here, they got into some cabinetry on the aft deck and in the coring around the gauges on the flybridge, and I have to tent to get rid of them. The little bastards have to go.

 

[Angela]

So where is squirt staying during all this?

He is safe at my dad's apartment nearby. Ed and I are staying there, too. We cannot wait to get back on the boat.

 

[tom5518]

He is safe at my dad's apartment nearby. Ed and I are staying there, too. We cannot wait to get back on the boat.

How does Squirt like living on the boat?

 

[Angela]

How does Squirt like living on the boat?

It's better than living in a kennel at the animal shelter! And it's better than the certain death he was facing that day I walked in and met him.

He’s actually a great boat cat. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by outings. My previous kitty would throw up and have runny crap during the first few hours. Not this one. Squirt is my “foster fail” and he is a great cat to have failed with. He doesn’t scratch on any furniture; doesn’t get up on tables or counter tops where food is prepped or eaten; he sleeps in bed all night log; doesn’t try to leave the boat (although he loves the aft deck) - he’s just great all around. When we are underway and have dolphins by our side, he will sit in the wondow and watch them flop in the wake. He has adapted very well. He is FIV+, but healthy for now. I hope he is with us for a very, very long time to come. I take very good care of him and feed him a high-quality, grain-free, human grade food, and he gets daily supplements to help keep his immune system strong.

 

[tom5518]

It's better than living in a kennel at the animal shelter! And it's better than the certain death he was facing that day I walked in and met him.

He’s actually a great boat cat. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by outings. My previous kitty would throw up and have runny crap during the first few hours. Not this one. Squirt is my “foster fail” and he is a great cat to have failed with. He doesn’t scratch on any furniture; doesn’t get up on tables or counter tops where food is prepped or eaten; he sleeps in bed all night log; doesn’t try to leave the boat (although he loves the aft deck) - he’s just great all around. When we are underway and have dolphins by our side, he will sit in the wondow and watch them flop in the wake. He has adapted very well. He is FIV+, but healthy for now. I hope he is with us for a very, very long time to come. I take very good care of him and feed him a high-quality, grain-free, human grade food, and he gets daily supplements to help keep his immune system strong.

I hope you don't think I was asking because I was questioning if he has a good home aboard. I may someday be boating full time and I surely won't be leaving my kitties behind. I want to have an idea of what to expect.

PS. I would love to see a pic of Squirt.

 

[jim rosenthal]

The rest of us cat fanciers would like to see him, too.

Think of it as a one-night stand that went bad and good for you for saving his life.

 

[Angela]

Here he is. Tom5518, I didn't take your question the wrong way at all.

 

[Angela]

And speaking of the little rat bastards that decided to take up home on my boat....here are some of them. Not sure how well you can see them in this photo, but they swarmed that day, landed, shed their wings, and then gathered in clumps. They seemed to be attracted to the white surfaces of boats. Ironically, none of them landed on and gathered on teak decks. I had a few days worth of these guys swarming. People who were on the docks that day were using water hoses to spray them off before they could find an entrance.

 

[tom5518]

He's a nice boy!