The Deal With....Ants

I used to admire ants, how they all worked so hard together, how they were so cute on the movies. That was before I had an enormous ant hill in my yard in Canada. I moved from admiration to slight irritation as I battled them all summer, finally just pouring boiling water to kill them and my grass.

The I moved to Bolivia and my slight irritation increased to a state of constant bothering and some days it flares up to madness as ants are not only in my yard destroying the flowers, but the are in my house...and not just any ants.

First, it started with the big black ones. They were over the counter if any food or water was spilled. They were also on the floor in swarms under Asha's chair. Sweeping is a must after every meal. The black ones didn't really bother me, because they aren't hurting anyone. But the kids were given permission to kill any ant in the house, just not the ones outside, well, the ones outside that are carrying leaves you can kill.

It was only when there would be 25 ants at any time on the counter, the spotless, dry counter, when I really started to get hot under the collar. I told Carl it was time for more drastic measures.

He bought the poison spray. We moved all the dishes, all the food stuff, got the kids out of the kitchen and sprayed away. Immediately, ants came pouring out as they tried to escape their inevitable death. They kept coming and coming, all afternoon and evening. In the morning, there were about 300 ants lying dead over the floor. Part of me was satisfied, another part of me horrified. For every dead ant, there are probably 50 more....

We had peace for 5 days, then the little ants came. They are just tinsy tiny and hardly make themselves known. But when I wipe the counter, some jump onto my hand and crawl up my arm. Then I have this crawling feeling up my skin. Brrrr.....

Then a few days after that, I noticed larger, very fast moving brown ants in the house. They were all over the place and after 3 days, I realized we had another outbreak. Sigh, so we sprayed again. I wonder what kind of poisons we are exposing ourselves to in order to get rid of these ants? Then I discovered two ant nests in our house in the outside wall where the brown ones had been coming from. Spray again.....

I realize that I am living the reality of 2/3 of the world. Only where it is cold, do people have relief from any kind of insect. They get into the food, they fly at your head, they crawl over your skin and live in your house, in your drains, in your bed....So with that reality, I have to be okay. It's kind of an endless fight. Just keeping those crazy ants at bay because I know I can't win this battle. Sigh.

When we went to D.C. this summer, there was an interesting quote in the Entomology section at the Museum of Natural History.....