Carol&John

Seen the white van from Aljaraque parked in Marina Esuri to "control de plagas".
Our communal garden area was sprayed this month with an insecticide.
I think the ants have "MOVED UP IN LIFE", however.

p.s. I find the pleated mossie blinds also provide a bit of sun screening.

MikeCol

Yes we are sprayed at regular intervals (the gardens I mean not Mike & I) and we keep the ant population at bay with the Ant Traps from Mercadona. Mossie screens also good for trapping dust.

Jon-Bxl

You've gotta hand it to the ants. We are up on the top floor and the smallest piece of food can fall on the floor and not long after there is a line of ants there working in concert to get the nosh. They can sense it from far away even on the top floor. We had all the corners siliconed to try and stop the little holes where they come through. Its quite amazing how they will find a tiny morsel of food that accidentally falls and is unseen.... or a drop of coca cola for example...

But annoying also - - so good for the spraying and also interesting that there are ant traps too.. will check that out soon.

Jon

Sam Greenfield

Yeh the ants have been worse this year for us but the owner of our rental had loads of packet stuff opened in one of the cupboards and that seemed to be attracting them :-( - I felt cheeky throwing someone else's things away so we didnt but I think a few of those clip n seal boxes would be perfect for them xxxxx

Steve and Pat

Haven't seen many this year so far. However, last year I was very puzzled as although I scrupulously cleaned all the kitchen surfaces after preparing any food, I still kept seeing a procession of ants walking across the worktops carrying breadcrumbs. I subsequently discovered that they were going inside the toaster and picking up the crumbs from inside it! Who'd have thought?!

Sam Greenfield

Hahahahaha cheeky little sods lol xxxxx

Mitto

Hi Sam,

I had some mosquito screens fitted a few weeks ago by Denny from M2M Blinds. He has made a fantastic job and although his quote was the most expensive I'm so glad I decided to go with Him. The blinds are of real quality and with Denny being an English guy it's peace of mind in my opinion. He is based in Portugal but is happy to come down to Esuri to measure up. The blinds are made to measure so they do take about two to three weeks to be made. I would give him a try.

Regards Graham

Sam Greenfield

Thanks very much Graham much appreciated xxxxx

MikeCol

Could I just ask why you say 'being an English guy it's peace of mind in my opinion' is there something wrong with other nationalities? We used a local supplier and have to say there is nothing wrong with the standard of workmanship and product. They were also made to measure and took a couple of weeks but by the sound of it were cheaper. Regards Bryony

Jon-Bxl

Aaaah yes.. but are they 'German quality?' (just kiddin')

Its good for Sam and others looking for blinds that there are 2 choices recommended by forum members. They can get comparative quotes and check both out.

Denny from M2M did give me some great advice that I follow seriously. Regularly spray the tracks, and moving parts, of the door-accordion blinds with SILICONE in the lubricant. Don't use WD40 as it can gum up. It makes a big difference.

I got a lot but stocks are running low ..... I found some in Jumbo Faro but not there last time, so if anyone knows where to get it, please let me know.

I would also recommend getting the more expensive accordion blinds for all the doors - they resist the wind better. Our neighbour has a roll-down type and you can see its already broken. In fact we got accordions for all the doors/windows (horizontal and vertical) as we are very exposed to the huge winds we have and they 'give' better. All have resisted perfectly.

I didn't read Mittos post as being in any way anti-Spanish. I am ashamed to say that I don't speak Spanish. Learning French was hard enough later in life - mid 40's, that I am hesitating now Spanish in mid 50's. Also its the old adage 'use it or lose it' with language. You have to practice to learn and retain it. That's going to be harder for me with Spanish. I am 'immersed' in French, fortunately and speak it daily (and more than English probably... as you can probably tell from my grammar/vocab in the posts! )

I mentioned in another thread to Sam that I got amazing service for white goods from the local Spanish shop - far better than the UK. Well done the local Spanish vendors! But white goods are mass produced.

For the Blinds which are made to measure and also for the A/C which we did a non standard installation - we went with Brits. Here there is more chance of something going wrong and in that event, knowing I could properly communicate, it gave me (personally) peace of mind too. Also these were high price items - couldnt afford a cock-up. That's not in anyway criticising the Spanish... it is more of a criticism of my own lack of language skills in CE... and the wish to minimise risk/issues.

Jon

MikeCol

Hi, for all of you out there who don't think your Spanish is up to scratch you can, for instance, use Google translate. We use a local Company (as do quite a few others) to maintain our aircon system and when we need to communicate we do so by e-mail (in English) which, when it gets to to them, they just click on translate and Bob's your uncle no probs. They then respond to us in Spanish and we do the same. It does also help to pick a few terms which you may find handy

Mitto

Bryony, there is absolutely nothing wrong with other Nationalities, if there was I wouldn't have bought a place in Spain! I used a local Spanish company to fit my Air conditioning and that has been great too. I did find the language barrier quite tricky at times though and was just glad I had a friend to do the translation.

What I ment was that it was much easier for me to communicate, ask questions, arrange fitting dates etc especially over the phone as most of it was done whilst I was at home in the UK. I also feel that should there be any issues or problems (fingers crossed there won't be) going forward this would also prove easier for me as my Spanish isn't really that great.

AnnieHydes

Who gave you this quote....good price

Fredbargate

Annie the company has a very small office in Gib with their workshops in Spain, possibly La Linea
They have now measured the blinds 2.10 X 1.00 & 2.10 X 0.90 mtrs and given a quote of £110.00
All being well they will be delivered in the next week.

AnnieHydes

Great price. Thank you