As I mentioned, there’s been a war going on in my house for quite some time between myself and the slavering horde of ants.

“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”

And as it turns out, the problem is much larger than I thought.

My first assumption, that the tiny antennaed hellbeasts were getting into the house via the weep holes (which is an utterly disgusting name by the way), is NOT the case.

No, they’re already here.  They live in the walls.  

The traffic that I was seeing at the breaks in the brick mortar (anything to not say that word again), were the little bastards going out to eat, then coming back in with the food they’d found.

We determined this by coating the outside bricks in deadly ant neurotoxin last Thursday, then placing deadly ant neurotoxin bait around the house.  The swarming inside since then has been both ceaseless and grotesque.
And yet there was zero traffic coming in and out through the…uh…adobe apertures?

These things.

So they live in here with us.  Swell.

The exterminator was absolutely gobsmacked when he saw how much of the bait had been consumed, and confided that he’d never seen anything like that before.  I guess if you’re going to have a pest problem, go big or go home move out?

Anyway, we’ve reapplied tons of the strange translucent bait goop all over the house, and the little red devils are absolutely feasting on it right now.

I want to believe that it’s working, and that we’re not just feeding them…  Time will tell I guess.
I’m not sure where we go from here if the, “let’s just use more bait!” strategy fails.  The exterminator mentioned that they might have to go into the walls?
*sigh*
That sounds expensive.  Let’s hope that’s not the case.

In similar outgoing income news, the television receiver died yesterday while the exterminator was here.  Yes, that receiver.

Which means I’ll be picking up a new one from the guys at All-Star (again) this afternoon and setting it up this evening.  So what’s the over/under on whether it will actually work this time?

$40 on Captain Freedom!

In addition, Daphne has decided that waking up 2 or 3 times a night is an absolutely fantastic idea.  Although last night was the first time she slept through the night since last Friday, which was very much appreciated, little girl.

Now take all this and dump about 200 gallons of ice-cold work stress on top of it and you’ve got a recipe for some seriously sleepless nights.  At least I’ve been able to work my way through some of the Fantasy Flight research while I’m lying awake.

Wow.  Okay, this was a serious downer of a post.

Sorry about that.

Things are not really that bad…  I’m just venting a little.  I’ll try to pep things up tomorrow before I head out for the weekend.

See you then.

j.s.