Ant Attack

My mom reached in the pantry this evening, perhaps for a box of crackers or the canister of flour, and she let out a shriek! Ants had come crawling down her hand.

I may or may not have mentioned it, but we've been plagued by ants this summer. They've come crawling into the kitchen through every conceivable orifice, showing up everywhere from the counters to the dishwasher.

For the past couple of weeks, it had looked like we'd beaten the ants, having sprayed the kitchen with some sort of bug repellent and set up traps. But now it looks like they had just found a richer cache of food.

My parents emptied the pantry, wiped it all down and stared in horror as the ants started escaping through the tiny crack between the built-in pantry and the wall. As my mom sprayed Raid into the crack, I poured the newly opened box of pancake mix into a clean canister, cleverly taping the box's instructions to the outside that we might not forget how to make them.

I don't think the bottom pantry got cleared out -- my mom said "she didn't see any ants in there." I disagree with this argument for the improbability of a second ant invasion, but then, I don't want to be the one finding ants crawling up my arm while checking.