失敗から学ぶ、天敵への対処

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　今年は、９月中旬になっても「サルスベリ」が未だ満開です。昨年は開花が今一歩でしたが、それには理由がありました。それは蕾が出ないうちに私がよいと思って水を遣り過ぎたことです。水を与える時季は「蕾が出来てから」です。そうすると蕾が日に日に大きくなります。

　一方、サルスベリには天敵がいます。それは幹の途中に直径７mmほどの大きな穴を開け、中に卵を産み付けるカミキリムシです。最初、この穴を見たとき、人間の誰かがドリルで穴を開けたのかと思うほど大きく深い穴です。しかし、知らず内に開けるので防ぎようがないのが実態です。たくさん開けられれば枯れる可能性があります。

　私としては穴を発見し次第、穴の中に水道のホースで勢いよく水を注入して洗い流し、同じ太さのサルスベリの枝を切って穴の中に差し込み、金づちで打ち込みます。その後、サルスベリは年々成長してるので、この方法で対処してます。

　一方、天敵は未だいます。小さな赤い蟻です。やはり幹の中に巣を作り、その数は数千匹になります。これに対しては最近とても良い方法を考え出しました。それはガムテープです。粘着性がある面を表にして幹に巻きます。蟻は貼り付いてしまい、これで蟻は来なくなりました。何事も、一生勉強、一生青春でしょうか。

Dear my overseas friends

　The simultaneous interpretation for you will be later, because from now on I will participate the radio gymnastics held at the park and take a breakfast. Then I'll interpret into English for your understanding above mentioned contents.

　This year, the crape myrtle in the garden is still in full bloom even in mid-September. Last year, the flowers were slow to bloom, but there was a reason for that. The problem was that I watered it too much before the buds appeared. The best time to water is after buds form. Then the buds will grow bigger day by day.

　On the other hand, crape myrtle has natural enemies. It is a longhorn beetle that makes a large hole about 7mm in diameter in the middle of the trunk and lays its eggs inside. When I first saw this hole, it was so big and deep that I thought someone of human had drilled it. However, the reality is that there is nothing I can't prevent it because it opens without knowing. If it is opened too much, the crape myrtle may die.

　As soon as I find a hole, I use a water hose to vigorously inject water into the hole to flush it out, then I cut a crape myrtle branch of the same thickness, and insert it into the hole with a hammer. Since then, the crape myrtles have been growing year by year, so I've been using this method.

　On the other hand, there is still natural enemy. A small red ant. They also build nests inside trunks, and their number is in the thousands. I recently came up with a very good way to deal with this. That's an adhesive gummed tape. Wrap around the trunk with the sticky side facing out. The ants stuck to it and now they no longer come. No matter what, I'll be studying all my life, and I'll be adolescent all my life.

※上記の英文をネイティブの発音で聴くには英文をドラッグしてコピーし、次に貼り付けて下さい。なお、右上の欄を必ずUS Englishにしてください。https://ttsreader.com/ja/