Killing Time!
Well, I couldn’t let them have roaming rights again – not after the performance I had last year. So it was a quick dash to pick up some ladders and a willing accomplice, a quick dash back to the house and then it began.
It was up to me to scale the dizzy heights to the very top of the two pine trees at the front of the house while Steve held the ladders to prevent me from falling the three hundred and sixty-three feet back to earth (it seemed that far anyway but maybe it was around thirty). Operation Kill Them Critters began with the strategic positioning of the ladders (thanks Steve) to maximise the reach of my arms and more importantly the loppers and hand-saw that were my weapons of choice.
A mere 40 minutes later and the deed was done, five caterpillar nests neatly detached from the trees, bagged and ready to be disposed of on a makeshift funeral pyre hastily arranged in an old wheelbarrow. Although we didn’t see any caterpillars during the extraction process they were very much in evidence as the nests were turned to ashes by the flames, helped along by a generous amount of petrol (lead-free of course).
No photos of me up the ladder as we were much too preoccupied with the thought of being attacked by hordes of rampaging caterpillars but, here’s a few taken during the burning!
Postscript: after all that, we missed one, so we’re going to have to do it all over again, grrr!
The one that got away…
for now!
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Category: Life in Spain
I can confirm the brave deeds done by Lee. After only 10mins of encouragement and insult, he did scale dizzying heights to take the battle to the beasties!
A return visit will no doubt follow the same well thought out plan, but hopefully without the phrase ’scaredy cat’ being uttered as our intrepid skydiving web developer gingerly ascends the creatures’ lair.
Bring ‘em on.. I say.