How can you get rid of ants, cockroaches, lizards, mosquitos and spiders?

In the UK at home we have had ants, silverfish and spiders. On holiday in Greece at a hotel I encountered little lizards running up the bedroom wall. In America I saw cockroaches for the first time. In Singapore we get ants, and cockroaches, and lizards - and mosquitos!

Ants
We have bought three brands of ant traps in Singapore. The ant traps you buy in Singapore are designed so that the ants eat the poison and take it back to the nest and poison the queen ant. The instructions tell you not to kill any ants you see but let them go back to the nest. It will take up to a week for the last ant to disappear.

Cockroaches
One system I have heard of is to spray them with hair spray.

In Singapore we just spray them with anti insect spray. It is horrible to inhale. You have to shut the door and get out of the room. We keep the spray on the work surface near the sink so it can be found and grabbed in a hurry.

Lizards


Mosquitos
When I first went to Singapore I was bitten a lot and I read that mosquitos and other insects are attracted to flowery perfumes, so I stopped wearing perfume. Instead I stocked up with lavender and citrus products, lavender hand creams and bath gels and lemon soaps.

Everywhere in Singapore you see signs on banners, posters and leaflets about the Mossie Wipeout. This is prevention rahter than cure. You are asked not to put saucers under plant pots nor to have any kinds of bowl in a public place which could catch rain water where mossies can breed. The main concern is not malaria but dengue fever.

Mosquito Fogging
Buildings have regular mosquito fogging in Singapore. But you still get mosquitos and biting insects.

Fogging in India.

Spiders
So many systems are available. You can try the simplest which is to put a see-though drinking glass on top. Slide a piece of thick paper underneath. Carry the spider outside, or to the nearest window. You have to be sure that the paper is not thin and flexible or it bends and the spider wriggles out.

Another method is to vaccuum clean, if it is on the ceiling or some corner where you cannot reach it and capture it.

I once had a spider-catcher with a pyrmid of transparent  plastic on the end of a stick and a flat sliding piece which could be moved by hand or would fall if you rotated the end of the stick.

It worked very well. But you got up rather close to the insect. I preferred the vacuum cleaner which allowed me to stay at a distance.

Mosquito proof clothing
It is also advisable to wear long sleeves and long trousers and socks. the fabric should be insect proof.  Check the weave. I think woven horizontally and vertically is usually tighter than knit which is loops. (Or is it the other way around?)

Craghoppers make protective clothing.

You

Useful Websites
https://www.99.co/blog/singapore/7-effective-ways-to-get-rid-of-lizards/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_control

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Quotations about travel, food, wine and wine bottle labels

As you sip your coffee, you may recall:

APHRODISIACS
For women, the best aphrodisiacs are words.
Isabel Allende in Of Love and Shadows.
QQ

APPLES
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An onion a day keeps everyone away.
QQ
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
QQ

BREAD
In the Lord's prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. Nobody can worship God (or one his neighbour) on an empty stomach.
Woodrow Wilson (28 Dec 1865-3 Feb 1924, 28th US President.)
WSWW

CHAMPAGNE
In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
QQ

COOKS
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
QQ

COFFEE/TEA Quotations about coffee
As you sit researching your travels, sipping coffee or tea, you might recall:

If this is tea, bring me coffee. If this is coffee, bring me tea.
US President Abraham Lincoln.

You can have any colour, so long as it's black.
Henry Ford (about motor cars).
QQ

DENTISTS

If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken more care of me teeth.

Pam Ayres

QQ

DINING and DINNER
Show me another pleasure like dinner, which comes every day, and lasts an hour.
QQ

DIRT

A little dirt never hurt anyone.

QQ

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

QQ

You'll eat a heap of muck before you die.

QQ

DRINK AND DRINKING
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may diet.
QQ

Stop at two.
(Said of children and drink.)

I recall W C Fields:

When I read that drinking was bad for you, I gave up reading.

QQ

I drink therefore I am.

WC Fields

QQ
WSWW (WC Fields 29 Jan 1880-1946 Dec 25.)

One more drink and I'll be under the host.

Dorothy Parker/Frank Sinatra.

QQ

DOCTORS

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An  onion a day keeps everyone away.

QQ

EAT AND EATING
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.
Eat drink and be marry, for tomorrow you may diet.
QQ

One should live to eat, not eat to live.
Moliere
QQ

You are what you eat.
Brilliant-Savarin.
WSWW

FOOD / FEED/ MEALS / DINNER Quotations about food
I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.
W C Fields
QQ

Let food be thy medicine. Let thy medicine be food.
Hippocrates.
QQ

If you can't feed, don't breed.
QQ

KITCHEN
If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
QQ

MEAT
One man's meat is another man's poison.
QQ

OYSTERS
He was a bold man that first ate an Oyster.
Jonathan Swift 30 nov 1667-19 Oct 1745) Irish author of Gullivers travels. Died age 77.

TRAVEL Quotations about travel
It is better to travel in hope than to arrive.
R L Stevenson (Author of Treasure Island.)
QQ
(Many more in Quick Quotations for authors and speakers Page 92)

WATER
I never drink water. I am afraid it may become habit forming. Fish f... in it.
WC Fields
WSWW (29 Jan 1880-1946 Dec 25)

WINE Quotations about wine
A glass of wine and thou.
QQ
Good wine needs no bush.
QQ
Wine, women and song.
QQ
...
GLOSSARY
QQ quoted in my book Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
WWSW quoted in my book Who Said What When (Lulu.com)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,  author, researcher, speaker.

More on mussels, good and bad: more mysteries solved

As a person who does not eat mussels, nor any shellfish (I'm allergic to shellfish, which includes crustaceans, as well as molluscs) mussels have always been a mystery. But I've started asking questions and getting answers.

I was sitting in a restaurant when somebody complained that half their mussels would not open.

This was in London, England. The diner complained to the restaurant server. I thought the diner might get refunded for half the dish, but the manager apologised and refunded all the money for that dish. That was the right thing to do, to mollify the aggrieved customer and the onlookers. 

I asked, "Couldn't the staff have just cracked open the mussels?"

Apparently not. I was told, "You mustn't eat mussels which don't open."

Some time later I asked another mussel eater about this. I was told, "You don't eat mussels which won't open because if they haven't opened they haven't been washed properly."

I asked, "But if the mussels could poison you, or upset your stomach, surely the restaurant should not be serving mussels which cant be opened, at all, ever?"

The reply was, "You often get mussels you can't open. About one in twenty. But fifty per cent is far too high. Lack of quality control."

I suggest you research the subject from those who know more, and follow up by checking, politely, with your local restaurant manager or supermarket or food store before buying and serving mussels at home or at any event.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, speaker and author.

Mushroom Dangers For Walkers, Cooks, Magazine Editors and Artists

Walkers in Britain have been warned to beware of wild mushrooms. In France it is common to see French families walking with baskets for gathering mushrooms. I was told that you can go into any pharmacy in France and they will have either a book about mushrooms or a poster on the wall showing the safe or poisonous mushrooms (and toadstools).

I went to a botanical garden in the Loire valley of France. I asked if they had a poster about safe and dangerous mushrooms. They did not have a poster with coloured pictures but they had a book with small print and illustrations. I can't remember whether they were coloured or back and white. But the book would have been tiring, and possibly confusing, because it was all in French, and although I speak fluent French, a lot of the terms were technical and botanical names.

On a lighter note on this subject, I once met a woman who worked as a sub-editor on a cookery magazine. She said it was important to re-check quantities and correct names of ingredients and match pictures and captions to recipes. I asked her if they ever got the recipes wrong with disastrous consequences from disgruntled readers.

She said they once sent off their text about unusual mushrooms to the art department. The artist chose the popular red mushroom with white dots used to illustrate fairy stories. Apparently it's deadly poisonous.

I asked her what happened. She replied that the week afterwards the magazine's circulation went down.

"Your readers died!" I gasped.

"I don't think so," she reassured me. "The readers wrote in complaining they had wasted time and money, that they couldn't complete the recipe because none of their local supermarkets could offer the mushrooms our recipe specified."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2778804/Wild-mushroom-foraging-alert-Walkers-warned-dozens-cases-poisoning-far-year.html

I went looking online for books on mushrooms and found these links, although some of them might be country specific to mushrooms found in the USA, UK, France or Asia.

http://www.fieldforest.net/Books-and-DVDs/products/11/


Here's one I found on Amazon: The kindle edition would be really handy to carry around.

I'll still stick to supermarkets. But I have mushrooms growing in my garden (what the Americans call a yard, as it is so often a paved area without necessarily having a garden). I would like to identify them.

Rogersmushrooms.com has lots of pictures. Amazon has several books and you can read a couple of pages to see if you are getting the right sort of information for your needs.

Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them by W. Hamilton Gibson (6 Aug 2014)

• £1.29 Kindle Edition
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