Mother makes use of my cozy guest room frequently Last night she awoke me complaining the bed was crawling with ants. Sure enough, she had half-a-dozen bites. We shook out her nightgown, treated her bites, made her a new bed down on the sofa in the living room, but I felt just terrible about it. I’ve always made a point to keep the room just to her tastes, freshly aired and dusted, with nice linens, and a handmade quilt. Having her jarred from sleep by ant bites was horrible. When I got her settled, I turned the covers back and found dozens of big and small black ants, moving in trails across the expanse of the covers. I sprayed the bed and floor with insect killer before I went back to bed.
This morning when I went in to strip the bed, I found the source of the problem. When I opened the door late yesterday to ready Mother’s bed, Buzzy, my American Eskimo Dog came along to help. He frequently hides treats. Delighted to find new territory, he retrieved an old piece of cornbread he’d apparently just dug up from its hiding place in the yard. Unbeknownst to us, he slipped it up under the pillow in preparation for Mother’s visit. It attracted ants beautifully. The bed was fully loaded for Mother.
Many years ago, spending a night in the Guesthouse of a German Castle, I found ants under the eiderdown cover. The innkeeper casually explained that the ants sometimes came up through a pipe on the wall behind the bed during mating season. I asked to be moved to another room and left the ants to their amorous adventures.
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I guess in your case, everybody doesn’t love a lover.
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Or a horde of lovers! At the time, I had been touring from early morning and was only looking to sleep, not share my bed with anyone or anything for that matter!
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Ants aren’t the best choice!
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At least they weren’t fire ants!🐜
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Oh, I hate those.
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🍪🐜🐜🐜
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Thanks.
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Buzzy’s a great host.
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Oh no! Poor Mother! Bless her heart. Don’t be too mad at Buzzy, he was just trying to welcome her.
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Tell mother
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If something is going to happen, it usually happens at the most inconvenient time! BTW, if you need a chemical to deal with this, I suggest Telstar – it is fine indoors & outside. We spray it every 6 months because we live in the South and have fire ant issues.
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I’m in Louisiana. Boy do I know fireants.
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My brother in law told us about Talstar & he was right – we got ours from Amazon, but I’m sure you could get some locally.
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Does Buzzy have a hidden agenda? e.g. maybe he wants that bed for himself?
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Not with ants!
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Oh no your poor mum..we have plagues of ants here and the tiniest crumb and vomp they just appear from nowhere 🙂
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That’s tough.
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Aw, poor Buzzy wanted to share a midnight snack with Grandma. Buzzy probably doesn’t mind ants and probably couldn’t understand why his people have a problem with that. Buzzy probably thinks that chasing ants around is a great way to exercise off the midnight snack.
On another note – why do you always find one big black ant right next to one little black ant? We noticed that a lot this summer. Is there some kind of conspiracy afoot?
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Don’t know. Ants orientation?
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My Rottweiller (now long deceased) used to bring people he liked portions of his kibbles and drop them in their shoes, or boots. I imagine soggy kibbles in your shoes can be a rather unpleasant experience at times, but his intentions were noble…I think. I never saw any ants, however, so I guess they don’t like dog-food. As for your original question. the universe has not truly singled you out, we all get hit on some kind of infernal schedule that always manages to hit at exactly the worst times. (At least that’s my theory.) I do feel for both you and your mother, however, since neither of your experiences could have been very pleasant and I’m sure you’re both just glad it’s all over.
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I suspect it was slightly worse for Mother than for me.
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Gosh that’s awful! Buzzy, noooo! I’m sorry that happened.
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He’s looking for another job.
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OMG!!! Pour mom! Is that THE guest room???
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Don’t make me tell you. Buzzy is no longer in charge of decorating. He feels so guilty. Look at his sad face.
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Haha… no worries! Pour Buzzy, one failure and he was fired… 😟
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He probably thought he was putting a mint on her pillow.
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So cute. He only wanted to gift her!
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She has very poor manners. She never thanked him.
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That is mean! That is really very unappreciative.
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My thoughts, exactly.
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😀 I’ll tell her in october, ok?
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Do that!
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Can’t wait 😃
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That’s oddly sweet.
My parent’s cat greeted me on a recent visit by peeing on my bed.
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Oh no! Thanks goodness. No cat to greet guests.
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Oh dear, these things do happen.
Leslie
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Buzzy has been fired from host duty!
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Good move.
Leslie
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Mother is so critical.
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Being a mother, i like to hear that.
Leslie
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