Let me make a few more observations about toilet facilities in Sierra Leone. While staying in very small villages, it is not too bad because after all there is some forest around and possibly even a private privy or two. We had one near us in Tikonko. Susan can testify that there are a few small hazards involved, though. Army ants are one of them……
Spiders
The old man looked at him for some minutes then, in silence, as the red embers of fire in the meeting place turned colder. Like the webs of giant spiders, the hammocks moved imperceptibly back-and-forth, in silence. Outside, the moon spilled in white sheeting onto the village.
Termites
Apparently not too much had changed. well they did have a few bee suits they had not made any new ones in the last year or two, so more than likely people were doing a lot of harvesting at night in their underwear, the traditional method. of course in this method the hive is destroyed. But these traditional hives really only last a year or two anyway before termites and the weather destroys them. they had tried using plastic to protect the hives from rain degradation but it didn’t really do much good because termites destroyed the hive before the rain did. Apparently the last two years had been very poor harvests. they were selling their honey for about 70 cents a pound.
Bees
Covid mercifully spared me of personal distress. It did however shut down international aid projects, so I haven’t been to Africa since it began. Bees have been doing well as usual. This year was a skimpy harvest though, only 650 pounds…..the weather just did not cooperate. Bees are very healthy though.
Wasps
Working on Ace Bee and Wasp Control, acebeeandwaspcontrol.com ….hope to rescue a bunch of beehives next year (and get paid for it!).
Mosquitoes
Flies
September 10, 2017. My-oh-my time flies when you’re having fun. Maybe I should try spending a little more time on my web page….this is the first post I’ve had in about a year. Oh well.
Beetles
Another thing worth reporting is that there seems to have been abnormally high losses this year. People are reporting almost 50% losses so far. there was a tremendous amount of parasitic behavior in hives this summer, lots of Hive beetles and large numbers of varroa mites and the accompanying viruses. I hope for the best but I suspect this winter will be rough on Oklahoma beekeepers. I haven’t had losses so far, thankfully. Actually, I was surprised at the size of the honey crop this year, about a 50 pound per Hive surplus….I was surprised because the river flowers got flooded out this year, and that’s usually my biggest source of nectar. They found a some other sources and did great!