gullybogan

Dear Reader,

Around Cup Day, all the termite colonies in the thousands of gum trees around Ferntree Gully open up and spread their wingéd explorers to the wind.

This year, the bloom was a little late, for some reason. It started tonight, a week after Cup Day.

The first i knew about it (there was no sign of activity when i got home) was when Sybylla walked in from work and Princess told her to STOP! That there was SOMETHING ON HER COLLAR!

It was a wingéd termite, all right. It had dropped one of its wings and was trailing the other.

« Do i look wood? » Sybylla asked the tiny creature pinched between Princess’s fingertips. « You dumb fuck. You had one chance at this, and you blew it. »

Millions of these little buggers fly about in swirling clouds, hoping to find a tasty house to eat. Most newcomers to the town are quite charmed by these tiny unidentified visitors, until you drop the T word. Then they get quite upset, and start looking twitchy.

In Chez Bogan, we have to do without the downlights for the evening on Termite Night. The termites see the light and heat of them through the hairline gaps in the crappy roof tiles, and make a beeline (so to speak) for the welcoming glow. If we don’t turn off the lights, we have half-cooked termites dropping through the light fittings all night.

Or so we found out last year.

The termite explorers (colonists?) are about four to five millimetres long, brown, with wings (that they drop soon after landing) that are also brown, translucent, and about two to three times their body length.

If you see them hovering around your place, you have to check annually to see that they’re not eating your house from the inside out.

It’s part of the social contract we have with Gaia.

Enjoy.

Yours,
Gullybogan