occupation: SAHM

The ants made a clay pot their territory, and I found that out the hard way. I wanted to use that pot for something else, so I tried to pull the plant out. Monstrous red ants immediately popped out from under the soil and attacked my hands. Ouchie!

I immediately poured buckets of water into the pot. I gleefully watched the ants drown, and those who managed to escape the water I promptly sprayed with insecticide. Haha!

The next day however, the ants were back with a vengeance. They left the pot alright, but made my veggie plant box their new haven!

Boy, was I furious! My hands were still swollen, and now they were attacking my baby veggie plants.

I later learned I made three mistakes. First, the ant-infested clay pot should have been treated far, far away from the rest of the garden. It didn’t occur to me to put the pot elsewhere. Well, it was pretty hard to think straight when I was being attacked.

Second, I shouldn’t have used regular tap water. I may have killed hundreds, but surely, there were thousands who survived that flood. And the rest of the colony will just look for another home. In this case, my plant box.

Third, I failed to kill the queen ant and the eggs. Kill the queen, and the colony will lose the will to live. Well, I didn’t even know there was a queen somewhere.

(I made research about these darn ants, that’s why I know quite a lot. Yeah, I was really mad!)

I wanted them all gone ASAP, but I didn’t want to use any pesticide. They took residence near the tomatoes.

So I took out my largest cooking pot, filled it with water, put it on the stove, and waited for it to boil wildly like a witch’s cauldron. I then took out the pot to the garden, and excitedly poured the water on the ants. They were dead in an instant. Yeah!

And then, I saw the fattest ant among the bunch, slowly crawling away from the ant slaughter. Aha! Must be the queen ant! Fighting for her life!

It was just one fat ant, but I poured the rest of the boiling hot water around her. Die, queen ant! Die, ant eggs! Are those your sisters?! Die, heirs to the throne!

I ran out of hot water, but I was ready to boil another should there be any trace of ant life. But all seemed still. I successfully annihilated an ant colony.

***

It’s been a month, and my plant box remains pest-free. And my hands are now fine, thank you.