The Ants Go Marching Two by . . .

It's incredible how fast crumbs accumulate under the couch cushions. We just recently started upping the frequency that we clean out that hidden area. It all started when we were watching TV and noticed something crawling and even nipping at our leg. We looked down and it was an ant, then another, and then we saw a little line of them marching in from the bottom corner of the back door.  We have never had ants inside our house before, and so this was definitely worrisome. I vacuumed them up right away, but then a few days later we saw them again, and this time Jason sprayed ant spray outside the back door to discourage them from coming inside.

This past Sunday, we saw some more ants, and did the same thing. Vacuum them up and spray the ant poison outside. On Monday, I was leaving the house to go to the gym, when I saw my neighbor on her porch and her son climbing in their hibiscus bush, which was strange, since he's a college student and doesn't "play" in the yard. I said hi and asked them what was going on. I thought it might be a stray puppy or kitten they were trying to get out from behind the bush. They said they were having problems with ants. Well, it was good to know that we weren't the only ones with ants in the house. We chatted about how they must be trying to find water in this extreme heat and drought conditions we have been having. And I told them they were not alone in this situation, and we had been exterminating our own little congress of ants. 

So, now that we know these little critters can get into our house, we are taking even more precautions to try to dissuade them from wanting to come in. Today I was babysitting three young children who came to play with my son. And they were all eating chips and cookies in the living room. I was following them around trying to keep the crumbs under control, and planning my "as-soon-as-they-leave-i'm-vacuuming" plan of action to hopefully stop this ant problem from going to the next level. It seems like it could be like an iceberg situation, where you see 10 ants, but there are 100 more hidden somewhere in the "nest".  Yikes!!! I sure hope they haven't built a nest yet.  I think those ants we have vacuumed up were just the search party out prospecting. Maybe their recent demise will stop any plans for real estate expansion project. We can only hope . . . and keep the vacuum plugged in.