The Ants Go Marching One by One... or Is It By 100?

August 27, 2007
Over the past few days my annoyance with ants has increased greatly. I suppose that they still have my respect as far as their work ethic and persistence but there are just too many in my life. I never knew that so many species existed in one place – my house. There are the big black ants that love oil and so if there is even a drop or hint of oil on the outside of a bottle, these ants congregate in masses. Then there are the “normal” ants that like sugar and any other piece of food left lying around. The thing is these ants will raid the trash can and carry cracker crumbs up and out and then across the floor to who knows where. For some reason even the leaf cutter ants try to walk in under my front door carrying leaves. I am not sure where they are headed. I would prefer that they carry the dead leaves out which they have done on occasion, thereby being a little more helpful.

But last week the ants went too far. I had brought the food for the Williamson’s dog, Cappuccino, to my porch because it was raining and he was not down at their house to eat. I set it on the porch where I could keep an eye to make sure that the other dogs did not devour the food. After a while I went out to check on the food and found that the ants had taken over. And these are the little ants that bite. I was in the middle of cooking so I figured that I would wait a half an hour until was done to fight with the biting ants. When I went back out to the porch, I stared in disbelief at the empty dog food bowl. They had gone and carried off every last piece of food and these are decent sized pellets! Then I noticed a group of 4 or 5 ants carrying a pellet up the wall towards an electric outlet where I believe some of them have had a nest (hence the outlet does not work). That did it -- those ants and the food went flying with a whack of the broom!
A few nights later I was reading in my hammock when I noticed a big black beetle flailing its legs as it lay upside down on the porch, trying to right itself. Surrounding it were a bunch of ants that seemed to be waiting for either its death so that they could carry it away or for it to stop moving long enough that they could carry it away while still alive. I am quite certain that they were not there for its benefit. On that particular evening my sympathy went to the beetle and I hopped up and helped to turn the beetle right side up. At this the ants dispersed, the beetle hissed and then moved on. For once the ants did not win.

I suppose that my battles with ants will continue indefinitely. Thankfully I am not dreaming of them and since the time they got in my sugar several months ago, they have not in any of my containers. I definitely wear shoes in the house so I do not feel the crunching. I probably should return the Proverbs and remember that which I can learn from the ants currently annoying ways.