Dead Ant

The sugar ants had returned to my kitchen while I was away last week, tiny little blighters. I found them last night, a thin trail of corner-of-the-eye movement. They scurried, formicated in fact, almost invisible, past the front of the sink and across the food preparation area. I traced their point of entry, a fissure in the aging sealant by the window, to their destination, a gap in the contact between one of the upper cupboards and the wall.

So I drenched both areas with some climatacidal insecticide. And then again, more spurts for good measure.

I came into the kitchen this morning. At the front of the sink was a rather large huddle of the wee things, maybe 100, 150. Trapped, unable to go home or to go on, they gathered themselves into a group for reassurance, maybe like a township seeking safety after a monumental disaster.

It reminded me sadly of the Japan experience of the past few weeks. The earthquake of my footsteps, the tsunami of killer spray.

I actually felt touched.

So I with a mighty fingertip, like a solid cloud of radiation meltdown fallout, I swiped across their emergency shelter and their vain hopes and wiped them all out of their misery...

End of metaphor.

E@L