Scout Ants

 

Every spring I’m confronted with the same problem: Bugs.  Relatively easily solved by the annual, sometimes biannual, calling of the exterminator (who sprays only in the basement and around the outside of the house).

Now picture a Warner Bros. cartoon of an ant.  This would have the mandatory huge anthropomorphic (having human characteristics), cartoon eyeballs of exaggerated size. And a large head, wearing a big smile.

With the beginning of the spring season comes the scout ants. They burst upon the scene to literally scout the scene.  What’s happening, any predators around, is this safe, any food?

I envision one specific ant who I actually saw appear on my kitchen counter in a ceremony of great expectation on its part.  It was heaped in the enthusiasm of the very young. As it actually was.

How did I respond to this appearance?

I crushed the little twerp! Right there and then.

But not without any regret.

Here was a tiny being whom I always remember with huge sympathetic eyes. The thought of which make me feel needlessly guilty, having been shot down in the dawn of his life.

But what could I have done?

I didn’t want ants marching around on my kitchen counters.

It had to go. Maybe to Ant Heaven? I can only hope.