An Ant Rant.....

I was mowing the lawn today and had to move a large rock out of the way to maneuver around one of the corners.

When I lifted the rock, I found a giant nest of large, black carpenter ants wiggling around. I screamed, jumped back and started running away like a crazy girl. I looked up and down my arms and legs to see if any of the ants had jumped up on me. And, went running into the garage to find something to kill them with.

I scurried around and finally spied an old bottle of Wasp killer. I figured if the chemicals could kill wasps, then they could kill ants. I ran back to the nest and started spraying- then watched some of the ants flee and others stop in their tracks.

I felt better.

Is that wrong? Will the PETA police come to arrest me? They did get mad at Obama for swatting a fly. LOL…

For as long as I can remember, large quantities of ants have freaked me out. One ant.. I’m good. Two ants, I might be motivated to flick one away. When I start to see three or more I tend to get up and get out.

About ten years ago I bought my first house in a distant suburb of Boston that was surrounded by a lot of tree cover. I found one ant, then two, then lots inside my house and called in an exterminator. He found a large nest in the drop ceiling and told me that he had to “bomb” the house to get rid of them. And, when he set off the chemicals the ants would come out of hiding as they died.

OK.. what did that mean? Dead ants everywhere. It was totally disgusting. I wonder what’s lurking in my home today?

I did some research today about my carpenter ant friends. Are they really that bad?

My search uncovered that carpenter ants can indeed bite humans. They usually don’t, but I quote “ Their jaws are large and capable of inflicting a painful bite.” Another writer described the bite as “a pinch and no poisons or acids are injected.”.

Although the ants live in wooden structures, they are meat eating bugs. They mainly live off of other smaller insects and the insects’ “excrement”. (Lovely) Occasionally they dine on decomposing animals like snakes and frogs.

Do ants do anything good? Well.. yes, they can play a positive role in the environment as they help to aerate the soil.

Like most things, there is an official term for having a fear of bugs - called entomophobia. Someone with this disorder has a slight to severe emotional reaction to bugs and/or anxiety.

I even found an article called “How to Cure a Fear of Bugs”, by Michelle LaRowe at eHow.

I don’t think I have entomophobia. But, I have had my fill of ants. For now....

Copyright 2009, M. Reynolds, All Rights Reserved