It's a Wild World

Nature is fighting back. It's been twenty one years since we decided to tame a piece of virgin land by creating a house and garden and diverting the natural flora and fauna. Occasionally there is counter attack. I mentioned the mosquitoes last week and now we have discovered a mouse or two in the house.  In an effort to get rid of the rodents, we put a couple of sachets of poison in the kitchen. This had no effect on the mice but attracted thousands of ants who called in all their mates to try and carry away the toxic tea bags in a version of ant olympics. We hastily replaced the poison with a sonic deterrent but the ants didn't go away, in fact I think we have opened an ant disco: they are queuing up at the doors. Any minuscule crumb carelessly cast aside becomes a writhing mass of tiny bodies.  The big ants have taken over outside. I was hanging up my smalls when I felt a sharp pain in my big toe and looked down to see blood spurting over a large black ant that was still chomping at my foot. Kicking that aside, I bent down to grab some more washing and narrowly missed picking up a small brown scorpion.  A timely reminder to shake all towels, shoes and costumes that have been drying outside.  Not all our neighbours are tiny.  Last night when I went out after dark to shut up our workshop, a very close loud grunt and rustle had me running back inside for a husband and torch. I then sent him out first, and as he wildly waved the torch and emitted calls worthy of an alpine yodeler, we heard our porcine visitors running off to the nearby fields.
Putting the finishing touches to this post today, my vision started to go blurry and my left eye began to twitch.  Ever the hypochondriac; brain tumour, stroke and Bell's palsy flashed through my mind before I got to the bathroom mirror... An ant was crawling over my eyelid!