![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/ants.jpg\" "\\"ants\\"")
It was our neighbor who first battled the little stinkers and showing off her recently obtained expertise, spouted, \u201cThese ants aren\u2019t those teeny, tiny brown ones that sneak into your sugar-coated cereal. They aren\u2019t the large black ones that bite, either. No! These are the dreaded White-Footed Ants.\u201d She and Pest Control Guy (PCG) fought them and they disappeared from her inhospitable environment.<\/p>\n
A week later I realized that her ants were now my ants \u2013 a quivering mass of \u201cOperation Invasion\u201d marching in a double black line, heading for and returning from some mysterious food source under our home. I stomped on them and depleted two cans of toxic stuff. Relentless, they signaled back for reinforcements and detoured around their newly departed comrades.<\/p>\n
I phoned for back-up. Within the hour PCG\u2019s truck screeched into our driveway, which indicated either these pests were ones you didn\u2019t fool around with or he figured big bucks were coming his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell. I\u2019ll hav\u2019ta see what variety we\u2019re talkin\u2019 \u2018bout.\u201d He didn\u2019t notice the dead ants littering the driveway? He moseyed around outside and strolled back in. \u201cI hate to tell you this (Yeah, right!<\/em>), but the price we quoted is for your regular pesky ant, but what you got here, M\u2019am, is the White-Footed Ant and he\u2019s a different animal\u201d \u2026and the clincher, \u201cThis park is notorious for them; probably goin\u2019ta take months to get rid of.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow much?\u201d asked bottom-line Hubby.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll run you $254 for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs there a guarantee?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes Sir. But, you hav\u2019ta work at it from your end; cut back those bushes from the house. Those ants are jumpers, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, no we didn\u2019t know! Not only creeping, but airborne, too? <\/em>We signed, he sprayed and departed with one last caveat, \u201cNow this is goin\u2019ta get a lot worse before they decide to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Digging for one fact to obscure my ignorance, I asked, \u201cBut, don\u2019t you have to kill the queen?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNah, they\u2019re all queens. They just eat and zip back\u2019ta spread the word.\u201d<\/p>\n This morning, when I took Sasha out, the driveway was ant-free. Could it be that easy? Unfortunately, my jubilation was a tad premature. Upon closer inspection, I discovered they were taking up residence inside<\/em> and weren\u2019t fussy about where. The miniscule devils circled the outside of the commode and played water pool inside. They charged up through the kitchen drain, Spidermaned to the floor and swarmed over Sasha\u2019s dog-food. Several RAID cans later, I realized I\u2019d keel over before them and resorted back to shoe mashing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be a long haul until they regroup and advance to the next neighbor. But, when she knocks at my door, I\u2019ll express my sympathy and share my PCG\u2019s phone number.<\/p>\n I understand there might be a kick-back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was our neighbor who first battled the little stinkers and showing off her recently obtained expertise, spouted, \u201cThese ants aren\u2019t those teeny, tiny brown ones that sneak into your… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}