It's War. . . 

First the case of the Ghost Ants.

Here is an idea of their size.  They are very small. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas. They are attracted to food (especially sweets) and water. We first saw them in the bathroom when we arrived in Rockhampton. I thought they were gnats but they didn't fly.  There is nothing more exciting than seeing an ant go in and out of the air holes in our laptop. Or sauntering across the screen of my Ipad. If we are diligent keeping things clean and using pesticides we mostly keep ahead of them. We were over to the church the other day when a church maintenance person was working on the internet.  Elder Wright mentioned that he saw ants in the sacrament preparation area and he said, "Welcome to Queensland".   

They especially like to come out at night.  If I get up to go to the bathroom at night I may find myself chasing ants and spraying closets.  We rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher but one night we forgot to start the washer and then next morning when we opened the dishwasher there was an ant party going on.  The most disturbing experience was when I found them in my CPAP machine in the middle of the night. No, they did not climb up into my nose mask but for some reason I checked in the middle of the night and they were setting up house where the water resevoir is in my machine. Another hunting party ensued as I cleaned my machine and looked for ant trails.  You see first they send a few scouts and if they find anything exciting they go back and get an invasion force.

We were gone for three days and when we came back we found a 5 or 6 inch circle of ants tightly packed on our family room area marble floor. Great fun. We talked to our landlord about hiring a pestcontrol company and he said, "Sure we can do that but they just come back. So we just remain vigilent.  They become somehat dormant in the winter but really get going in the summer which is the season that is shortly coming upon us.  I wonder if one can rent an anteater?

Next is the case of the swooping birds.

Australia has magpies. We usually seem them out west in the United States. These magpies are much larger than the ones in the United States. They and their cousins, Butcher Birds etc. get very territorial this time of year because they are setting up breeding and nesting areas.  We are not talking about a little swoop feet above your head as a warning.  We are talking about attacking.  Have you seen the movie The Birds? As ussual Australia tries to warn you of every potentional danger.

This is legitimate. The sisters get chased when they are riding bikes all the time. People get creative to protect themselves.  We asked a nice lady today if we could take her picture because we were trying to explain to family and friends back home about how people add things to their bike helmets to keep the birds away.

Good old zip ties. They work wonders. You can lookup videos on YouTube and watch macgpies dive    bombing people.  It seems to be people most on bikes or scooters.

Well you have probably heard of some of Australia's most dangerous animals but now you know about a couple of their most ANNOYING.

Love you all. We still love teaching with the sister missionaries and visiting ward members who don't get out much. I am trying to sike myself out about the heat coming, but it is what it is.