The Great White Hunters

Sunday morning, I was treating myself to a nice hot bath in our over sized tub. I got a big bottle of Burt's Bees Citrus and Ginger body wash for Mother's Day and I was enjoying the smell of the oranges and feeling of the scrubby against my skin. When I got out of the shower, I was a relaxed and de-stressed woman. Let me tell you that doesn't happen very often.

I walked through the closet and into our bedroom, picking out clothing for the day. All of the sudden I heard, "VOOOOOOM!" My first thought was, "okay, my husband is vacuuming. But, the noise ended too soon for anything major to happen. I went back to getting dressed. After slipping on my clothes, it happened again. "VOOM!" Throughout the process of drying my hair and finding some socks, the vacuuming happened about three more times. Now I was curious. Why was there spot vacuuming occurring downstairs?

I came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen to find my son standing in front of the back door with the hose of the our Dyson Monster in his hand. He was intently watching the floor. Then, he'd reach over and turn on the vacuum, suck up something on the floor and immediately turn it back off. Hmmm.

"Hey honey, whatcha doing?" I asked.

"I'm sucking up the ants," was his reply.

I didn't know we had ants.

It seems that I left a potato on the floor of the pantry and the ants that must live in the woods behind our house used their supersonic smelling power to find it. They crawled through what must be a teeny tiny hole by the jamb of the door and tried to find our pantry.

My husband had noticed this great ant mission and had enlisted my son in putting it to an end.

This ant vacuuming went on for the better part of the morning. My son would spot an ant, suck it up, and then look for more ants. It was kind of humorous and he seemed to be enjoying himself. He was like a super powered anteater without ever actually eating the ants.

After about an hour, I said to my husband, "You know, I heard that ants don't like flour and that if you make a line of flour, they won't cross it."

Five minutes later, I see him with my flour jar and a spoon making little white ant barricades in front of the door and around the moldings. If a stranger walked into our house, they would now instantly think that we have a very large drug habit with the mounds of white stuff.

I would like to say that the ant hunt is over but we haven't seen the end yet. Just last night, the vacuum was running at midnight as my husband went to get water and saw one of the little black buggies making it's way accross the floor. I have a feeling that it's going to be like this all summer. There's been too much rain and our dry house makes the perfect escape from the wetness.

I also think that my boys are having too much fun playing exterminator.

The hunt is on.