Ants

Damn ants! I admire their strength and team work but am scared of the biting ones and annoyed that my house is not my own. The incidences of ant invasions into the bathroom are getting down to one a fortnight (probably combo of continued zero tolerance policy and the gecko that lives behind the hot water tank) but I was looking out of the back window the other morning and noticed the whole ground seemed to be rippling.

My eyes were drawn by loads and loads of little brown birds dotting about on the ground, then I saw the leaves were moving (it is like our autumn here now, leaves have fallen, less than 10 degrees and overcast) and on closer inspection I saw the ground was teeming with these black and red ant things. Blurgh, I never go round there anyway (snakes and spiders) but I now realise that the little holes in the earth are ant holes, and there are a lot of holes.

Sometimes, from the front steps, the noise of the leaves being moved and munched is actually loud and there are at least five different spots in the house where we (Phiri) have to brush black dust off the skirting boards every couple of days. This is the result of the ant nests in the roof that we have put poison down for but are fighting a loosing battle.

Strangely we don't really get that many in the kitchen (fingers crossed). Might be something to do with the other gecko that lives behind the fridge but I have noticed nest like stuff coming down between the wall and the ceiling. Last time we had that I cleaned it away and we had an invasion of Hitchcock proportions, so I'm just going to leave it. They can have the roof and the garden but if they come into the house I will Doom them. It is a very fair deal.

F x