We’ve never had ants inside our home. We’ve seen them outside and had them exterminated by a professional, but never experienced any trouble with them inside.
Until earlier this month.
My husband, in anticipation of the coming spring weather, power washed our patio and removed the winter growth of moss and other unsightly debris. A day later rain descended upon us like the antediluvian flood. Water stood everywhere for a few hours, then receded. The sun came out and all seemed to be well.
The next morning, though, I watched a troupe of ants climb down the kitchen window sill like Israelite spies sent into Canaan. Fewer than two dozen, they were easy to thwart with my thumb. But as the day progressed, I noticed more ants daring to encroach upon my counter top.
I declared war.
I called my husband who holds the record as Google researcher of the year in our house. He soon returned with his findings—either grease or sugar ants had decided to invade. He’d found them on the cat’s food so he concluded they were protein seekers. I’d found them near the syrup bottle.
Oh great! We have insects with cultivated tastes.
After trying two different homemade remedies—did you know lavender dish soap repels ants while it adds lovely fragrance to your kitchen?—we gained the upper hand. We moved our solutions outside to attack the main colony, but for now the marching columns of little critters is under control.
The Bible mentions these formidable foes in Proverbs. Though small they know how to take care of themselves. In Proverbs 30:24-25 Solomon says: “Four things are small on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise, the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”
In Proverbs 6:6: Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.
Trust me, the Bible knows what it’s talking about. Ants are a force to be reckoned with.
En garde!