Killer Ant
A few days ago, as I was walking into the house from work, I noticed on the pathway a swirl of moving black things. I squinted and saw that it was thousands of tiny ants. It looked as though the ground was moving. There was obviously an ant hill somewhere - I could not see where, and it was very close to the house and also in a high traffic area. Gross.
Note to self - don't tell my daughter, she has an incredible fear of ants. I've heard of arachnophobia. My daughter has anantnophobia. It's rare. Actually it is a real phobia named "Myrmecophobia". Go figure.
Note to self - don't tell my daughter, she has an incredible fear of ants. I've heard of arachnophobia. My daughter has anantnophobia. It's rare. Actually it is a real phobia named "Myrmecophobia". Go figure.
So I went inside the house and headed straight for the coffee maker. In an earlier post I had mentioned a website my sister-out-law made me aware of that showed "The Ten Best Uses for Coffee Grounds" . It said that ants don't like coffee grounds. I happened to also have some grounds in my fridge as a deodorizer (that really works by the way) so I grabbed them and the leftovers from this morning's coffee. I was happily dropping the coffee grounds on the walk way, getting bitten by the nasty little things the whole time. I guess they weren't impressed with me stepping on their siblings several times a day. And I noticed that the 1000's was turning into 100's rather quickly. Pretty cool. But I was out of used coffee grounds. I mean, who prepares for that?
So I went in and told my husband about the ants and that I had put coffee grounds out to help with it. The next thing I know he's out there looking, then back in the house, downstairs, then upstairs and then outside again. I didn't think anything of it. He's always running about doing absolutely nothing.
He came back in all proud and manly and said, "Well I sprayed the sidewalk with Raid. That should take care of it."
Like the Corporal Bug on the Raid commercials I said "RAID?!?!?! When did we get Raid in the house?"
"Your son brought it here when he was living with us. It's HIS Raid."
"He was 17 years old. That was over 7 years ago!" I yelled while looking at him like he was from another planet.
"Yeah, well he brought it into the house." Oh THAT was mature. "And anyways, we can't let those ants get into the house. What else am I supposed to do?"
"You didn't even give the coffee grounds a chance to work. How could you spray that toxic stuff? It goes against everything I believe in! Everything that I've been trying to change in the house over the last few years. What about the animals. The cats walk on the sidewalk. We all do. Next they'll lick their paws to clean themselves, soaking in Raid residue. How could you?" I was exasperated. The thing is I didn't realize until that very moment how important all of this is to me. It's not just a chance for me to blather on an on, although apparently I like to do that. I feel very strongly on the subject. I have changed on the inside. Its a permanent change. A change that took several years. But I have changed.
Our little discussion was over and my husband went outside and hosed the Raid off of the sidewalk and straight into our grass. He tries - I have to leave it at that.
As far as the ants are concerned they have not come back. We have been putting coffee grounds out there every morning after the java cools down. They seem to be gone. Was it the blast of Raid? Is it the coffee grounds? I cannot answer that. But I do know that they are gone. And I know more about myself than I did before.
So I went in and told my husband about the ants and that I had put coffee grounds out to help with it. The next thing I know he's out there looking, then back in the house, downstairs, then upstairs and then outside again. I didn't think anything of it. He's always running about doing absolutely nothing.
He came back in all proud and manly and said, "Well I sprayed the sidewalk with Raid. That should take care of it."
Like the Corporal Bug on the Raid commercials I said "RAID?!?!?! When did we get Raid in the house?"
"Your son brought it here when he was living with us. It's HIS Raid."
"He was 17 years old. That was over 7 years ago!" I yelled while looking at him like he was from another planet.
"Yeah, well he brought it into the house." Oh THAT was mature. "And anyways, we can't let those ants get into the house. What else am I supposed to do?"
"You didn't even give the coffee grounds a chance to work. How could you spray that toxic stuff? It goes against everything I believe in! Everything that I've been trying to change in the house over the last few years. What about the animals. The cats walk on the sidewalk. We all do. Next they'll lick their paws to clean themselves, soaking in Raid residue. How could you?" I was exasperated. The thing is I didn't realize until that very moment how important all of this is to me. It's not just a chance for me to blather on an on, although apparently I like to do that. I feel very strongly on the subject. I have changed on the inside. Its a permanent change. A change that took several years. But I have changed.
Our little discussion was over and my husband went outside and hosed the Raid off of the sidewalk and straight into our grass. He tries - I have to leave it at that.
As far as the ants are concerned they have not come back. We have been putting coffee grounds out there every morning after the java cools down. They seem to be gone. Was it the blast of Raid? Is it the coffee grounds? I cannot answer that. But I do know that they are gone. And I know more about myself than I did before.
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