Darkoshi

I've haven't been having much success with the service calls I've been making for my house.

When I suspected termites, I made an appointment for what I thought was going to be a whole-house pest inspection, as was done when I bought the house. I mentioned that I had seen signs of possible termite activity.

When the inspector got here, he had me show him the place where I suspected termite activity. After looking at it, he said that it was unlikely to be termites; that it was more likely to be carpenter ants. He didn't have any experience dealing with bugs in a ceiling/roof like where mine were. That if I cut back the branches from the roof, fixed the skylight leak, and replaced the water-damaged wood parts, that would probably get rid of them. That sounded like a good plan to me, as I didn't want pesticides to be sprayed if I could avoid it. He didn't charge me for the call, since there weren't actually any termites.

It was a relief not to have termites. But he didn't do the whole-house inspection which I had been expecting, and which I had been planning to pay for. And now I still have ants to deal with on my own. We trimmed back the branches from the house. We tried to find the source of the leak again, and caulked several places, but it still leaks when it rains.

By chance one evening, I noticed a long line of ants crawling along the overhead cable which provides internet access to the house. So now I know how the ants are getting to the roof area. (If I blocked that route, I'm sure they could find another.)

So then I bought 3 different kinds of ant baits, and put the baits up near the ant trail. (Due to the location, that was much harder to do than it sounds.) I got multiple types of bait, as I read that carpenter ants are picky, and sometimes they want sugar and other times protein. The ants don't seem to be going after the baits as of yet.

So. I want to get rid of the ants before replacing the roof. I'd hate for people to be working on my roof, and to end up with a bazillion ants crawling around them, due to the disturbance.

To get rid of the ants, they have to take the bait, and/or I need to get rid of the leak. It seems that I can't get rid of the leak until I replace the roof. So I hope the ants take the bait. (While at the same time feeling bad about conspiring to kill all the poor ants.)

There are 4 dead ants in the container which has the baits. That means the ants at least inspected the bait... but they're not supposed to die until after taking the bait back to their nest!?

..

The people who came today to service my A/C unit ended up refusing to touch it (and again not charging me anything). They said the compressor sounds like it is going bad, and that it could stop working in a few days, or it might still work for 2 years. They don't want to risk touching anything inside the unit, because then if it stops working anytime soon, I'd think it was due to what they did. But they did at least check my freon, and said it was ok. They said that the outside coils looked clean enough. They also said that as long as I've been replacing the filters regularly, that the inside coils shouldn't need cleaning.

So... that was everything I really wanted to know in regards to servicing the unit; but again, it wasn't what I had expected.

I was clearing some gutters out and decided to go on the roof to get at some stuff I couldn't reach from the ladder. (And to challenge my fear of heights.)

What I learned: A rooftop can become very very hot when the sun's been shining on it. Don't go up there on a sunny day without gloves and protective clothing.

Luckily I did have gloves within easy reach. But I still managed to slightly burn the palm of one hand and the side of one calf. Trying to quickly get off a roof back onto your ladder, when you're shaking with fear, both of falling and of being stuck on that burning hot surface... Whew.