Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I Ant Kidding

I once had a German Shepherd named Princess. I loved Princess. She was a little rough to play with considering she underestimated her strength. But I would play with Princess until I got scared of her and then I would go inside.

I specifically remember one play day with Princess. We were in the front yard when she charged toward me, jumped on me and knocked me over. She knocked the breath out of me and also knocked my head into a mound of ants. Why did it have to be my head? I have three times as much hair as the average human ... and it's curly. We must have washed my hair 10 times, and to this day I can't recall anything so painful and frustrating. Needless to say, we didn't keep Princess much longer. She was too rough around young kids. And needless to say, I have a deep-rooted hatred for ants.


All of this came back to me when I walked to my car yesterday. I needed to go home and let the pups out, however that wasn't going to happen. Somehow, my car had become a moving ant mound. There were ants on the bumper, under the hood, running along the inside foot board and just about everywhere else. It looked as if an entire family of ants had moved in and made my car their home.

I'm not sure how something like this happens, but my only answer was a combination water hose/ant spray treatment. I was fortunate to have a team of co-workers pitching in, as well as a group of shocked on-lookers. One person tracked where the ants were coming from, someone else sprayed water and another person followed with the ant spray. By the end of the treatment, there wasn't much movement. It appeared as if we'd killed the swarm.

Occasionally, I'll see a straggler or two. I smacked one on the dash last night and another one on my door this morning. With all this rain, I haven't seen much movement. Hopefully, the problem is solved. I'm afraid that if they put their minds together, my car might turn up missing.

6 comments:

Ashley Netherton said...

wow... Ants in your hair ? Scary!! Did you have 5 billion ant bites on your head ? So what's the deal with the ants atacking the envoy ? That scares me.. and if I could get the sccop, I may lure ants to my car, in order to help my scheme to get a new car!!

Stephanie Jordan said...

Yeah, ants in my hair. It was the worst because you can't just shake them loose.

I have no idea how the ants got into my envoy. I have two guesses. Perhaps when it rained like crazy Sunday, water washed them underneath my car. The water gets pretty high on our street and I was parked on the curb. My second guess, from the woods near our office. I parked really close to the fence yesterday, so that could be it.

Kate said...

That time that I worked at Cho-Yeh, they warned us "NEVER EAT IN YOUR CAR", because somehow, in the Texas summers, the ants would come out of nowhere and swarm your car. This may have happened if they sensed a french fry. Also, since your office is down in a bunker type, maybe ants have lots of colonies there. ?????

Stephanie Jordan said...

That makes sense, Kate. But I can't remember the last time I ate in my car. I think it has something to do with the bunker/parking lot.

Mandy S said...

really?! TWO serious situations w/ants...wow!! you're doomed! that's so bizarre!!!

Stephanie Jordan said...

they hate me, I suppose!