It's a bird, it's a plane... it's an ant!

Just when you think it's safe, that you can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the late spring weather, you get hit with yet another pest.  Our little fly in the ointment for the month of May has just put in its appearance.


A couple days ago, Callie and I noticed maybe 5-6 ants scurrying along the wall in the master bathroom to the shower.  We haven't had much rain lately, so I figured they were out looking for something to drink.  I purchased a can of ant spray at the store and killed them.  Unfortunately, that didn't take care of the problem.  We saw some more that evening in the same spot, plus we found a few in the bottom of the shower.  Once again, I hit them with the spray and washed them down the drain.  


This morning Callie was in the master bath borrowing my hairbrush and decided to check the shower for any further ants.  She opened up the glass door, sucked in a big breath and announced, "Oh my gosh, mom, hurry up and come see what's in the shower."  With the luck we've had - ladybugs, birds, foxes and now ants - I was a bit apprehensive.  And rightly so... there were no less than 50ish ants in the shower and most of them had WINGS!  

The world-wide web is terribly handy, but will also give you nightmares.  You know how it goes, you're not feeling well and type your symptoms into Google, which then pulls up a diagnosis like the plague or leprosy.  See the handy little diagram I found when I searched "ants with wings"?  I don't know which one I prefer - the ants or termites.  For the sake of the homeowners, I hope it's the former because if it's the latter then they're in for it.  Hmmm, we're living here so that means they have to foot the bill while we have to live through the process.  Do you think that means we'll get a break on our rent this month?


But wait, it gets better.  All week I thought Annie and Callie had been eating a snack at the big table, the one that sits directly beneath the master bath in the area on the first floor between the kitchen and family room.  This morning I discovered a bunch, as in maybe a hundred dead AWW (ants, or possibly termites, with wings) behind the master bedroom door where it leans against the hall wall.  The light bulb in my head finally flipped on and I zipped downstairs for a closer look at the dining table.  Sure enough, there is a recessed light right above the spot where I thought I was seeing snack crumbs.  It turns out that the crumbs are actually bits of the plasterboard around the light... or their hatched out empty egg casing thingies.  ICK!  And there were AWW crawling around the light fixture.  EWWWW!  


So yeah, the lettings manager for our house received an email from me this morning asking that she ring up the pest service yet again - the third go 'round - so they can come out and take a look at the situation.  I need some sort of pesticides that cause mutant babies because the ants have gotta go. 


Right now I'm envisioning the whole house draped in one of those tents they use for serious fumigation.  Our neighbor back in Texas, the one that lived in the restored original farmhouse on our street, had to have this done several times over the course of the four years we were there to keep her house clear of termites.  I hope the little suckers haven't eaten away at all the subflooring so that we're just a couple showers away from falling through to the area below.  Just the thought of that seriously BUGS me!