TIL: How The Ants Got Into Our Bathroom🐜🐜🐜
Hint:
It's not what you're thinking. Read on to learn the real truth about how the ants got in.
"Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest."
- Proverbs 6:6-8 -
It all starts innocently enough.
One little soldier ant, out on a reconnaissance mission, finds a tiny gap.
One little soldier ant.
Image courtesy of Iman Nazari and http://pixabay.com
Exploring, he enters the house.
When he finds water or food, he carries some of it back to the nest.
On the way home, he leaves a pheromone trail to enable his fellow workers to find their way to the treasure. If you don't clean up that trail, more will keep coming in.
We have had a plague of ants this year.
I thought my Kindle reader was having a nervous breakdown. It lay, untouched, on the coffee table. Suddenly, the pages started flipping as if an invisible finger were turning them.
When I looked closely, I discovered a tiny ant walking along the left edge of the touch screen. Don't tell me those Kindle touchscreens aren't sensitive!
Ants everywhere!
Somehow, the ants got into our master bathroom. How did I discover this?
So, I'm sitting on the hopper, minding my own business.
Hmmm, what's that little tickle on my backside? Yep, you guessed it.
It's the water they're after.
I used to have compassion on the ants. Their antics can be amusing. They make me think of the minions in the cartoon movies.
No more.
Entering the house now incurs an automatic death penalty upon discovery.
I've spent hours in the bathroom, day and night, crushing ants with my fingertip and washing them down the sink drain. Dead ants and ant parts everywhere.
One appeared on the ledge beside me, uncharacteristically standing still. Of course, I got 'im.
Each ant is a tiny tanker,
capable of carrying water back to the colony.
In this amazing video, you can see ants drinking a colored liquid. As their abdomens fill, they swell visibly.
Video courtesy of God Man and https://YouTube.com
Try as I might,
I was unable to figure out how they were getting in.
Then, in a flash of realization, it hit me.
The colony, desperate for water, put their top ant scientists to work.
After combined efforts totaling hundreds of "ant-years," they developed a working TrANTsporter mechanism, a-la Star Trek.
The TrANTsporter Mechanism.
Image courtesy of brownpau and http://flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
It's a brilliant solution.
No longer do the workers have to leave a pheromone trail; they just record the GPS coordinates of their find and return to the nest. The ant equivalent of Montgomery Scott, a.k.a. "Scotty," then beams as many ants as needed directly to the target coordinates.
They pop up everywhere.
Image courtesy of vlada11 and http://pixabay.com
At least, that's what it seems like. You just can't figure out where they're coming from.
The frustrating truth is,
the ants literally crawl out of the woodwork. They find the narrowest of passageways, through windows, under doors, across branches touching the roof, up through cracks in the floor slab. The next thing I know, they're crawling out of every nook and cranny in the bathroom.
Like Whac-A-Mole,
they pop up out of any available orifice. When I'm on an ant hunt, everything looks like an ant. A bit of dust might blow in the breeze. A mark on the counter. A bit of matter floating in my eye.
I dream of possible solutions.
Image courtesy of Hans Braxmeier and http://pixabay.com
I dream of possible solutions.
If only I could develop an ant-phone. I would communicate with the colony:
"Hello, Ant Queen? Can we make a deal?"
"I'll gladly provide your colony a reasonable stipend of water and food.
What do I want in exchange?
I simply want you little buggers to stay out of my house.
Do I invade your mounds and warrens? No! There's no need for you to invade mine."
I've written about our ant woes before...
Don't miss my previous "Ant Story:"
"Ants"
A Haiku by Duncan Cary Palmer
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The saga continues. Yes my friend you have an Ant problem. Perhaps they sense your kind giving heart and your willingness to compromise. hmm. How tight are the doors and other openings? Keeping you in my prayers on this my friend.
Thanks, Troy.
ants are wonderful creatures
Yes, they are. Wonderful and amazing. I still want them to stay out of my house!
In the 3 years I lived in Alabama we had a non-stop ant invasion starting every summer. They would come through the ceiling and walls. No matter what I did or how many I killed they couldn't be beaten. Terro worked well but when you have millions of the suckers a little poison isn't going to stop them from regrouping. I'd go out in the yard and find ant hills all over. It was horrible. It is amazing how such a tiny bug can be so powerful because of the numbers.
Amazing, indeed!
It is usually summer when we are invaded as well... We gradually add "tricks" to our defensive arsenal, but have yet to find the "silver bullet." ;)
I am suddenly very itchy for some reason. 🤔
Ants know the other proverb that followed way latter - "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, then poverty comes. " (a little paraphrased, I know.) Proverbs 24:33 They sure know how important it is to keep on keeping on.
I am so glad that isn't your hand. ick
That made me very itchy, naughty little bugs that think they can do what they want . Hope you sorted them out.
We're still working on it, but I think we may be winning... ;)
If you can't beat them join them haha
Now I'm itchy.
Hahahahaha! Ants everywhere! ;) Even in your mind!
Guess you had ants in your pants🐜
Yes, they go everywhere.
hahaha love this! Especially "When I'm on an ant hunt, everything looks like an ant...A bit of matter floating in my eye." & "I've spent hours in the bathroom, day and night, crushing ants with my fingertip and washing them down the sink drain. Dead ants and ant parts everywhere." bahahaha makes me think of ant king @mobbs , always trying to ANTicipate their moves.
If it helps, your ant dooms have made me laugh. So that's something at least ay :D
Thank you very much. I'm always glad when I can bring a smile to someone's face. :D
hate to say it, but as I warned you before, you have to get them outside your house, on their turf, and use a residual spray. Or, you could provide a water feature, a sugar cube castle and a small sign reading Mar-a-Lago (Hint - don't deal with the Queen - she listens to the realtor ant who's notorious for changing his mind) LOL!!
Thank you, John... Particularly for your guidance re: dealing with the Queen. I, of all people, should know better than holding out any hope for dealing with royals... ;)
ha ha, exactly!