Monday, June 2, 2008

Ants, A Brief History

I have issues with ants. They creep me out. I would be content to get rid of all of the ants on earth. Drastic, I know, but I've got two stories as to why I feel that way.

Story 1: When I was somewhere between 3 and 6 (sorry I can't be more specific, but it was a long time ago), I went to a private school/daycare. They had an indoor swimming pool. One late spring or early summer day, I was walking with my class to our swimming lessons (actually, I think I was walking back from swimming, but I really don't remember) and I walked through an ant hill on the grass beside the sidewalk. A fire ant hill. While wearing sandals/flip flops. I don't remember the pain, but I do remember putting my feet in ice water to stop it. After that, I always made sure to stay on the sidewalk when walking around the school.

Story 2: When I was in 11th grade, I shared a room with my sister. We weren't all that good about keeping the room completely clean (a teenager and a little kid, who is surprised?). I spilled a can of soda and didn't fully clean it up, because I didn't think anything bad would happen. A while later (weeks, months, who knows?) I noticed ants crawling around on top of my dresser, where the soda had been spilled (I had cleaned up most of the spill, but forgot to clean under things). I picked up my alarm clock and there was a ton of ants, including what was clearly going to be more ants soon. I was, unsurprisingly, disgusted and freaked out. I don't remember who cleaned that up, but it got cleaned up and the ants were cleaned out.

So, you can see why I might be reluctant to be living around ants. At all. Nicely our small ant invasion seems to have left. I survived seeing and feeling several ants crawling on me. I survived seeing ants crawling all around the shower and tub, bathing and showering anyway, even though I didn't feel fully clean. I survived having to pour out several drinks and temporarily give up having open drinks in the bedroom, because ants were in them.

We're making a list of things we want done around the house. Extermination is definitely on that list. Ace is somewhat tired of me calling him to do something any time I see ants (I can deal with almost any other bugs, but ants are just too much).

Hopefully, I will soon be at peace with the whole situation, but for now, I'm wishing the ants to leave and stay away. I'd like to be able to drink juice in any room of my house, you know?

TTFN!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Spray them with vinegar... it messes up the path they leave to find their way back to the colony!! I works wonders at my house!! ~CRAZY!!