Apologies and Annoyances

First off, let me apologize for not getting my column written last week.

We'd had a lot of rain and couldn't harvest the sodden wheat. That led to a sudden decision to 'get out of Dodge.'

Dennis had a golf club that needed repair so we hit the road to Billings Friday afternoon when I usually write this column. I just wasn't up to trying to write while bouncing down the road.

We traveled to Billings via Fort Peck, Brockway, Flowing Wells, hopping on the interstate just past Terry.

Let me tell you, those roads leading to Flowing Wells are rough. I've logged enough flights of stairs while sitting in the back seat to earn an Eiffel Tower award from Fitbit.

Now I'm ready to talk about other annoyances.

This year has been one for the books: COVID, record cold in February, extreme heat all summer, drought and tons of grasshoppers.

Up north, I've also been dealing with a boxelder bug infestation.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: boxelder bugs are primarily a nuisance pest as they they enter structures, including homes, sheds and garages to overwinter, according ot pestworld.org.]

There we're lots of them at the golf course, too.

Monday evening, after enjoying golf with Dennis's youngest sister and her husband, as well as supper at Eugene's - Shyla can never come "home" without having at least one meal of pizza there - I wandered out to the garden to check the live trap there. (Can we say "run-on sentence?").

I'd caught one of the young fox pups a few days earlier and wanted to make sure I hadn't trapped his brother.

Yes, that fox was released unharmed - scared and angry, but not hurt.

And, I'm happy to report no raccoons have been sighted this summer.

I'm knocking on wood that happiness continues.

Anyway, I walked right into a swarm of flying ants, known to us as "pissants." They were thick on the ground, covering my delicata squash vines and all the flowers, both planted and volunteered, that grow under the tree at the top of the garden.

There was also a huge cloud of them flying in the shade of that tree. It was both disturbing and disgusting.

Dennis and I mixed up a couple one-gallon batches of Tempo and sprayed the heck out of them. There were piles of dead ones on the weed block cloth the next morning,

That prompted me to do a bit of 'research' - Google is my friend - on these pests.

They're also known as 'sugar' or 'pharaoh' ants. They fall under the genus Monomorium (scientific name - I'll stick to calling them pissants).

The family is Formicidae, and the order is Hymenoptera. There are about 396 species of ants. These particular ants are very small and may produce a urine-like odor due to their Formic acid.

The females are orangeish in color, and the males sport black wings for a couple of days.

Once the ant colony reaches a certain size, and after a heavy rain - or maybe a medium rain after a summer-long drought? - the ants emerge and set out in swarming flights.

Really, it's for mating purposes, and only lasts a day or two.

One or more females may become queens and will start new colonies far from the original one.

These swarms only occur after several years.

These pests can cause damages to your home, but not like termites will. They'll invade kitchens in search of sweet foods, hence the name sugar ants.

I do believe the term pissant was appropriated from these insects. It's commonly used to describe little annoying people.

Isn't our language grand?

Back to the garden: the beans are on hiatus, which is fine with me.

The corn has improved, with the ears filling out and becoming larger. I'm still getting a few late peas, enough to add raw to my salads. I think the birds gave up on them when the big harvest was over.

I'm enjoying fresh carrots and potatoes. I'm eating the cherry tomatoes as they ripen. I'm sure I have beets big enough to go after. They were shaded heavily by the volunteer moon flowers and husk cherries I should have thinned.

Maybe I'll thin them next year, or at least transplant them into rows.