Ants

This summer we had a giant community of ants move into a planter we had in our front yard. I know that most ants out here are pretty vicious, but I always respected my grandfather's dictum, "If you don't bother it, it will leave you alone." I took the attitude that the little fellows were in their habitat, so I should leave them alone. However, these turned out to be really aggressive beasts. They sometimes bit my daughter while she was sleeping, and they attacked my dog. I was worried that my dog would get killed by them one day, because they moved around the place almost in a swarm. The final straw was when my wife put her arm on top of the patio wall. The ants jumped on her, wrestled her to the ground and stole her glasses. Well, not really, but they did attack her.

I hate to use poisons, so I tried to dig out their queen. If I could just get rid of her, the nest would die a slow, peaceful death. At least that was the way it was with the red ants back home - I think the local ants may have a way to replace a queen. Anyway, I couldn't find her. I still didn't want to apply poison to the ground - I didn't want to poison bugs that were not bothering me, nor the predators that eat ants and other bugs. I tried a trap with mayonnaise and boric acid. They loved the mayo, but the boric acid didn't seem to bug them, either.

Finally I decided to poison the guys. I kept on thinking that maybe they would take the road of peace and quit biting us. I hate to kill things that are just trying to get on with their lives. But the foul little demons decided ambush the dog again, and my daughter still woke up with ant bites on her legs. So I bought a bottle of liquid death. I sprayed their heinous nest of wickedness. They seemed to appreciate the additional moisture, and I did not really see them thinning out. I knew it wasn't instantaneous poison - they wanted the ants to share some with the queen before they died. But it didn't seem to bother them for a couple of weeks. So I got some nest treatment and poured that on them. I gave them a really, really big dose of the stuff. I didn't want them to go on living with just an annoying stomachache. I figured smiting them at once was the best option. I don't like to think of them suffering needlessly because I didn't have the courage to do them in, so I doused the nest.

Finally, they disappeared. I still feel guilty about having to use poison, which I hate to do. I also worry about the residual effects of the poison I did use. But at least we haven't been attacked for a couple of weeks.