Crazy Ants
There are zero bugs on the ocean, at least once you’re a mile or two offshore, except for an inch worm that Brianna found in a head of lettuce we bought in Fernando de Noronha, and of course weevils, but those came with our food…oh and maybe some fleas, if we’d had rats aboard, which we didn’t (that we know of). But other than that there are no bugs at sea. It’s one of the many reasons that life is simpler and in most ways more enjoyable when land is out of sight.
So it was immediately noticeable when I saw a dozen or so new “friends“ scurrying around on the port deck just outside the cockpit a couple days ago.
A gentleman named Thaddeus, who’s been doing some varnish work aboard Coda, also noticed them, and warned me that it was something I should get ahead of with the help of some bug spray. I told him I wasn’t fond of using chemicals as a means of trying to control Mother Nature. Being a farmer (when he’s not working on boats), he appreciated my reluctance, but said that in this case there weren’t any better alternatives.
Apparently Crazy Ants like to live in electrical equipment and are vigorous enough that they can actually damage electical systems. So I chose the lesser of two weevils and used bug spray on the docklines, fenders, shore power cords and places on the deck where they were visible.