Friday, January 07, 2005

the ants go marching ten by ten

i was on the phone this morning, (with my dear friend leah, who is coming to san diego next month for a visit) when i heard a word i won't repeat resounding from the depths of the pantry. on moving closer to investigate, i found my husband madly pulling food items off the shelves while batting at them as if they were being disciplined. a long, dark stream of ants crept from shelf to shelf, stopping to sample bits of unprotected food here and there. josh had to leave for work, so he apologetically left me to take care of what looked like a million creepy crawly things eating my food. i'm the kind of girl who gets itchy just looking at bugs. actually touching them causes me to do the whole-body-shudder every once in awhile and run around the room shaking out my hair in case they decide to build a nest in it.

this is probably the fourth ant problem we've had since moving into our place, and there are two very important lessons i have learned. 1. windex kills ants. i actually find it kind of fun to watch them sort of melt after they've been hit. (i'm really not a bad person) 2. NEVER ever put out a glass full of honey overnight, thinking that the ants will fall in and drown. some fall in, but most drink up and then go tell all of their friends, "hey, you gotta try this place." next thing you know, you'll wake up in the morning and find your coutertops completely black with swarming ants. yes, it actually happened to us and no, i won't tell you who's idea it was.

so, the job is complete, the ants are gone...for now. so is my entire box of mini charleston chews as well as poor mrs. butterworth (the cap on top of her head was completely infested and ants were dropping from it to take a swim in the syrup). the most unfortunate part of this whole thing is that it took me so long to get rid of the ants...i don't have time to clean the bathrooms as i had planned. oh darn. ;)


~heidi, Queen of Pest Control

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