Ants!

We've got ants, which is common enough a problem I suppose. About a week ago, though, the mailman came knocking on the door. He handed me our mail and said "your mailbox is overrun with ants and eggs." Sure enough, I looked, and the box was just crawling with ants running around like crazy, scurrying about with eggs. It was a pretty scary sight alright.

I hosed down the mailbox—yes, I do feel bad for the ants, but I'm not sure that there's a better alternative—and left the mailbox door open. Well, some good samaritan neighbor came along and closed the mailbox door, and the next morning the mailbox was overrun with ants again!

So this continued for several days, and coupled with the fact that we've been dealing with small ants inside the house for years, medium ants since earlier this year, and really big ants outside for a few years, I decided to call a Professional.

The Professional (not to be mistaken with The Professional, or the other two Professionals here & here) showed up yesterday. The first thing he said was, "I could tell from a loooong ways away that this house was going to be a problem."

Well, yes, the garden is a bit over-grown.

The first rule of not having bugs in the house—plants must not touch the house.

Hahahahaha!

He says he'll do the best he can, but I really need to get as much of the plants away from the house as I can.

Phase I: Indoors

He asked me to show him where I see the ants. Mostly in the kitchen, of course, but I also pointed out the trail of ants in the hallway, which I thought were coming in through the door that went out to the deck.

He looked at me and said, "you know, ants aren't like people, they don't need to come in through a door..."

Phase II: Outdoors

Well, implementation of Phase II is delayed until end of July, giving me a month to get some of those plants under control.

It's never, NEVER, going to be bug free around here, but hopefully, at least the carpenter ants will be taken care of. But in the mean time, we really, really need to replace that roof...