I don’t know about you, but around this household, we know when spring has come, not by the first warm day nor by the date on the calendar. This household does not even rely on the sightings of the robin. Oh, no! We know spring is here by..... ants.
Yes! Ants! And not just any ant. In our home, the very first day we see the mighty carpenter ant... inside our house.... is the day we know spring is actually here. Ha!
According to this year’s calendar, spring began on the 20th. According to those pesky monsters, spring began the next night. Sunday, March 21st, was our official start to spring, when we stomped on our first ant of the season.
Soon to come... the exterminator! Another sign of spring!
I have always been fascinated by ants, and bugs, in general, but I have to admit, I really do not want to share my house with these creatures. Once, one walked on me while I still had my pajamas on and I felt it. I shook the pajamas to get rid of it and only felt a sting. The little monster bit me! I thought I had crushed it in the folds of the pajama but I only saw later that it had sunk its mandibles into the cloth and was not letting go. I tried to pry it off and it just chomped down harder! Well! I pulled and pulled and the little 3/4 inch monster would not let go!
I finally just pulled on it hard enough but succeeded only in dislocating its body from the head which was still attached to the pyjama! Tenacious little one! But... alas! I won! Victory was mine!
I am still fascinated by ants and I will stop to follow one if it has food in its mandible. Last summer, my daughter and I watched as one ant, with a cricket leg in its mandible, carried it to its nest somewhere in a tree in our neighbor’s yard. What a sight we must have been to anyone driving by... two people bent over just staring at the ground!
I do not go around squashing bugs, and much less little ants, but I also do not want them inside my house, especially making a meal out of it!
Ah, spring! I miss January already!
“An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.”
~Mexican proverb
