The yearly Charge of the Ant Brigade….. T’was a Friday Evening..
I have come to know that ‘Ants’ have an important role to play ın the environment, do great work and live side by side with their other insect comrades.
That said, I am not comfortable having them take up residence in my house. Last week as I prepared breakfast, an army scurried backwards and forwards on the kitchen walls disappearing through the corners of the wooden ceiling.
‘Why pick on my house and invade my space’? I wearily thought.
Selma appeared ‘Miriam you must realise they have a taste for wood. They are guests in every house in the village at this time of year.’
I came up with the idea of making a solution to remove them. I used an environmentally safe washing up liquid infused with boiled ‘Lemon Skins,’ water and a few spoonfuls of apple vinegar. I poured the solution into a bottle and sprayed the walls and ceilings.
Many Ants were lost in ‘Combat’and I can report the kitchen became an ‘Ant free Zone’
Then a small army of appeared seeking revenge ın the lounge as they chewed on the wooden ceiling, sprinkling a haze of black breadcrumbs along the mantel piece and onto the floor.
In my old life, Friday evenings were a ‘girls get together’ kind of evening. Were you at home last Friday or heading out to meet friends enjoying that first sip of chilled wine, bubbles, a V& T and some good chat? “Cheers, time to relax, it’s the weekend.” I heard you say.
At Pink Pines, it was a different kind of Friday evening. After my shower I walked into the back room that doubles up as a dressing room. On the floor lay my white cotton rug covered with a moving circle of black insects ‘The re return of the Ant Brigade.’
In the Depot (shed), I pulled out the steel ladder and placed it firmly against the outside wall. Climbing up wearing blue rubber gloves, armed with my spray I am able to ascertain the source of the ants domain. In their droves the ant army is moving from the forest along the ground, making their way up the wall on the outside of the back room. Like an Evangelical Ant Meeting they are arriving by the trillion through a hole in the overhead wooden ceiling.
Furiously, I spray the walls from top to bottom, Back inside I relentlessly continue to spray.
The Ants are probably having the last laugh, scrunched up together in the ceiling looking down, at this mad Irish woman as they take yet another million bites out of my wood ceiling.
On a philosophical note, I am mesmerised by the impact these tiny insects working together in harmony and what they achieve.
We can become powerful, more effective when we choose to collaborate and work as a team.
Thankfully without the destruction.
My battle with the ants is not over yet!
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