The Ants Go Marching Two by Two Hurrah Hurrah!
My home has had quite a week with unwanted guests! Fruit flies in my kitchen, chipmunks in the garage and now, ants have turned my patio into the Plains of Abraham!
After taking my husband his dinner, as I do every night, I was tired. I had babysat both of my grandchildren all day, it's exhausting being a human trampoline. While walking through my yard, on route to my back door, I noticed ants everywhere. Not just a few, thousands of them were walking in lines all over my patio. I stopped, and watched them.
Together, they looked like a topographic map of highways, intersecting. As I looked closer, I could see all of the carnage! Each line seemed to be carrying an insect to a different location. What was going on? Did someone ring the dinner bell for these little invaders? Upon further inspection, I could see 7 ant hills in different locations on my patio as well. It began to rain, and they were calling for a severe storm, so assuming the pounding rain would take care of them, I went inside.
We have had ants before in our other house. Huge ones, medium sized, tiny ones. You name an ant, I bet we had them! We first began to notice them in January, climbing up our upstairs hallway wall. I was horrified, as was my son. He did not like them. From the time he could walk, he took an adverse reaction to them. In fact, when he was just a year old, my dad gave him a little hammer, that one of my brothers had made in a school. My son would hammer bugs with it! It sounds funny, but it wasn't. He was lethal with a hammer, one of my walls can attest to that fact. He saw a bug, on the wall, and when he couldn't reach it, he threw the hammer at it. The hammer hit the wall and remained impaled into the wall until it was liberated!
So, the last thing I wanted was another hole in my wall from my 2 year old son on a bug extermination mission. I killed the ant, believing it was a fluke to find one in January. It wasn't. Throughout that whole winter, we found all types of ants in our house. I freaked out! Everything was clean, no food laying around, no dirty laundry, why we're these ants here? I had nightmares of ants living in my walls.
Finally, in the spring, my husband couldn't take it any longer. It wasn't the ants that bothered him, it was the lunatic living with him that drove him crazy.
The exterminator arrived, walked around the perimeter of the house, opened cupboards, checked under the sinks and said "You have an ant problem". I looked at him, and almost screamed "Of course we have an ant problem! Why else would you be here"? My husband stepped in between the exterminator and myself, probably jumping ahead to the near distant future, and witnessing in his head, the exterminators untimely demise, due to my disdain for ants, and knowing he couldn't come up with a good story to tell the police as to why we would have a dead body laying in our kitchen. I, am cooler under those kinds of situations, however, in this ant invasion, his cooler head prevailed.
He proceeded to tell us, larger ants, in affect will take smaller ants hostage and turn them into worker ants in their colonies. Felonious bastards! Isn't there some kind of law in the wild for that? Regardless, we had big bully ants, and little bullied ants, and I didnt want either one. The exterminator told us they weren't looking for food, they were looking for water. Water? OK, I was fully prepared at this point to bring the hose inside my house and blast them. Of course, my husband, calmer and wiser, had me by my hand and immediately tightened his grip. That exterminator turned out to be a decent guy, he told us to get some commercial grade ant traps and put 2 in every room. Guaranteed, the ants would die in a couple of weeks. I was distrustful of this solution. What, no blasting them, no ripping them apart limb from limb? Just ant traps? Huh!
Two weeks later, the ants were gone! The only thing to give away we ever had an ant problem were the ant traps we had in each room. Apparently, the exterminator knew what he was talking about.
Fast forward 23 years to my back yard. The storm is over, I walked outside, expecting not to see any ants or ant hills after being pelted by the rain. I was wrong! The ants hills were a bit worse for wear but still there. The ants were back on my patio, frolicking in the water. If my ears were better, I am sure I would have heard a Hallelujah choir singing.
I stood there watching them, purposeful little creatures. They all had a job to do and they did it. Lesson? Absolutely. I decided to let them stay on my patio. They were helping to keep the insect population under control and, they were outside.
Walking back into the house, I thought about all of our uninvited guests this week. I hoped it wasn't the beginning of a pattern of things to come!
I decided to make myself a cup of tea, and while I was waiting for the kettle to boil, I began to put the clean dishes away. I dropped some silverware on the floor and as I bent to pick them up I thought of what my mom used to say if anyone dropped cutlery, "Company's coming" ! I began to chuckle a little nervously...company's coming? Oh I hope not!
After taking my husband his dinner, as I do every night, I was tired. I had babysat both of my grandchildren all day, it's exhausting being a human trampoline. While walking through my yard, on route to my back door, I noticed ants everywhere. Not just a few, thousands of them were walking in lines all over my patio. I stopped, and watched them.
Together, they looked like a topographic map of highways, intersecting. As I looked closer, I could see all of the carnage! Each line seemed to be carrying an insect to a different location. What was going on? Did someone ring the dinner bell for these little invaders? Upon further inspection, I could see 7 ant hills in different locations on my patio as well. It began to rain, and they were calling for a severe storm, so assuming the pounding rain would take care of them, I went inside.
We have had ants before in our other house. Huge ones, medium sized, tiny ones. You name an ant, I bet we had them! We first began to notice them in January, climbing up our upstairs hallway wall. I was horrified, as was my son. He did not like them. From the time he could walk, he took an adverse reaction to them. In fact, when he was just a year old, my dad gave him a little hammer, that one of my brothers had made in a school. My son would hammer bugs with it! It sounds funny, but it wasn't. He was lethal with a hammer, one of my walls can attest to that fact. He saw a bug, on the wall, and when he couldn't reach it, he threw the hammer at it. The hammer hit the wall and remained impaled into the wall until it was liberated!
So, the last thing I wanted was another hole in my wall from my 2 year old son on a bug extermination mission. I killed the ant, believing it was a fluke to find one in January. It wasn't. Throughout that whole winter, we found all types of ants in our house. I freaked out! Everything was clean, no food laying around, no dirty laundry, why we're these ants here? I had nightmares of ants living in my walls.
Finally, in the spring, my husband couldn't take it any longer. It wasn't the ants that bothered him, it was the lunatic living with him that drove him crazy.
The exterminator arrived, walked around the perimeter of the house, opened cupboards, checked under the sinks and said "You have an ant problem". I looked at him, and almost screamed "Of course we have an ant problem! Why else would you be here"? My husband stepped in between the exterminator and myself, probably jumping ahead to the near distant future, and witnessing in his head, the exterminators untimely demise, due to my disdain for ants, and knowing he couldn't come up with a good story to tell the police as to why we would have a dead body laying in our kitchen. I, am cooler under those kinds of situations, however, in this ant invasion, his cooler head prevailed.
He proceeded to tell us, larger ants, in affect will take smaller ants hostage and turn them into worker ants in their colonies. Felonious bastards! Isn't there some kind of law in the wild for that? Regardless, we had big bully ants, and little bullied ants, and I didnt want either one. The exterminator told us they weren't looking for food, they were looking for water. Water? OK, I was fully prepared at this point to bring the hose inside my house and blast them. Of course, my husband, calmer and wiser, had me by my hand and immediately tightened his grip. That exterminator turned out to be a decent guy, he told us to get some commercial grade ant traps and put 2 in every room. Guaranteed, the ants would die in a couple of weeks. I was distrustful of this solution. What, no blasting them, no ripping them apart limb from limb? Just ant traps? Huh!
Two weeks later, the ants were gone! The only thing to give away we ever had an ant problem were the ant traps we had in each room. Apparently, the exterminator knew what he was talking about.
Fast forward 23 years to my back yard. The storm is over, I walked outside, expecting not to see any ants or ant hills after being pelted by the rain. I was wrong! The ants hills were a bit worse for wear but still there. The ants were back on my patio, frolicking in the water. If my ears were better, I am sure I would have heard a Hallelujah choir singing.
I stood there watching them, purposeful little creatures. They all had a job to do and they did it. Lesson? Absolutely. I decided to let them stay on my patio. They were helping to keep the insect population under control and, they were outside.
Walking back into the house, I thought about all of our uninvited guests this week. I hoped it wasn't the beginning of a pattern of things to come!
I decided to make myself a cup of tea, and while I was waiting for the kettle to boil, I began to put the clean dishes away. I dropped some silverware on the floor and as I bent to pick them up I thought of what my mom used to say if anyone dropped cutlery, "Company's coming" ! I began to chuckle a little nervously...company's coming? Oh I hope not!
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