Ant Wars

I have a favorite gratitude attitude story I share often. It is taken from Corrie Ten Boom's “The Hiding Place”. If you have never read this book I highly recommend it. It's in my top ten list. Corrie and her sister are in a concentration camp for hiding Jewish people during WW2. The first night there, they promise to continue their nightly ritual of thanking God for everything in their lives. It is Corrie's turn to pray that night and her sister insists that they thank God for the fleas that are epidemic in their barrack. She feels that God is in charge of ALL things so the fleas must be there for a reason. Corrie gives thanks for the fleas very grudgingly.

Much later they find that the flea epidemic is the reason that the guards rarely come into the barracks. This is a blessing in a number of ways, not least is the fact that they are able to have nightly devotions to God with the other inmates and a smuggled in Bible. At that point, they truly felt thankful for the fleas.

I recently had a similar situation. I have written before about the regular invasions of ants that is a part of life in this area. In fact, we joke that the entire town of Boardman was built on an anthill. It's not far from the truth. The first year in this place was a nightmare until we got things under control. Since then, we have had seasonal sporadic bursts of ant activity in the kitchen but nothing that some poison traps and cinnamon couldn't handle.

The day before the 4^th I noticed increased activity which I blamed the high heat for. I opened up a few extra poison packets, placed them strategically and went to bed. I couldn't believe my eyes the next morning. We, literally, had hundreds of ants parading across the counters, through the cupboards, down the walls and across the floor. They were everywhere!! I did what I could in the little time I had that day. I found a few food sources and quickly eliminated them. I placed out every gooey ant bait we had. By the end of the day, baits that usually lasted for months had been emptied in one day. I wanted to torch the house!

We got through our day somehow. The next day found me at Home Depot filling my cart with outside poison powder, inside spray poison and more of the sugar baits. I had declared war!! I spent the next two days cleaning everything, pulling everything (bookcase, appliances, furniture, dishes, food, etc.) out and spraying the entire perimeter of the house.

I did the same outside with the powder stuff. I spread it around the whole base of the house, in the gardens, even in places where they were bad in the yard. I did not enjoy this because I truly hate to kill anything but it was self-defense. The ants had fired the first shot. I was not going to lose this battle.

The good news is it worked. I am ant free except for the few that come in on the dog or us. I have decided to follow this regime every fall and spring to avoid future invasions. I hope we don't die of toxic shock in the meantime.

The best parts, though, are the blessings I received because of this invasion. My girls finally cleaned their rooms. Yeah! My house is clean in areas that haven't been touched for a long time. My books are all better organized because we had to remove them to move the bookcases. I found some I didn't know I had ( I'm reading “Gone with the Wind” now). I got rid of a bunch of stuff. I organized my “office” space in the living room, something I've put off for awhile. I found many “lost” items and also some very precious family memorabilia. In short, looking back, I realize that I am indeed, thankful for the ants.

If only I can remember this lesson the next time something like this happens. That's the view from my side of the street, what's yours?