Mayflies and.....

Did you guess the fruit on the tree in yesterday's photo?

Today's title is another clue if you know how much I love alliteration

But before revealing this fruit's name I want to tell you about our very own Guinness World Record holders. Ok, they aren't exactly ours but they live with us so I'm claiming them.

 See all those bugs?

Here's a closer look. These are Mayflies. They are Guinness World record holders for the shortest lifespan. If you have the 2009 book they are found on page 41. Just be careful if you are like me and can't even touch a picture of a snake--there's a big one on the bottom of the page.

So, apparently, mayflies can live as little as one hour. You could have fooled me though. These things are everywhere! According to Tom they have no mouth parts so they live two to three years as nymphs in lakes but only a very short time as an winged creatures.

Our doors and windows are just covered with them. Anywhere there is a light they congregate. I call walking through doorways or down this one particular stretch of outside corridor 'running the gauntlet' because I have to just run quickly and hope as few mayflies as possible will stick to me.

Like I said before, this time of year is crazy for bugs. The other day Tom killed 300 flies in the kitchen alone. This is no exaggeration!

Our visitors last month shared a joke with us:

You know you've been a missionary for a year or less when a fly lands in your soup and you throw it all out and get a fresh bowl. You know you've been a missionary for 5 years or more when a fly lands in your soup and you flick it out and carry on eating. But you know you are a lifelong missionary of 20 years or more if a fly lands in your soup and you pick it and and shout, "spit it out!!"

I, ummm, fit in the five years or more catagory.....do you know how many cups of tea I'd have wasted by now otherwise? Please don't judge me.
I would love any ideas you have for getting rid of flies. We have hung traps outside but as full as they get there doesn't seem to be any less flies. I am open to all ideas--crazy ones, wild ones, old wives tales, anything except for voodoo. And I may change my mind about that. Just kidding.....I think.

We do have a couple of allies in the kitchen.
Don't worry, they're much cuter than Mr. Imperial Scorpion.

And there they are. Two little chameleons.

The kids caught them and they now live in our kitchen window.

They eat a ton of bugs and are fun to watch.

And now for the big reveal!

Did you guess the name?

They're mangoes. We are going to have so many mangoes. This is just one of our trees.
Last year we tried drying them in a homemade dehydrator. It worked pretty well but we need a better storage system for them. I'm looking up recipes for mango curry, mango pickle, mango cake, mango ice cream, mango....what else? What do you suggest? Any good recipe ideas?