Death and Destruction....feeling like Robert Oppenheimer....

Arose Saturday to find a handful of very small ants wandering about in the bathroom.

Made a mental note to get something chemical to treat the situation, when next I sallied forth to the store, stomped a couple of them, and went about my business.

Noticed that by Sunday morning there were several dozen, and still only in the bathroom; as best I could ascertain, they were coming up alongside the heat vent.

Felt the need to tackle it with chemicals, and explored what I had available. Nothing logical for the purpose, but what the hey, try what's at hand.

Zotted the buggers (cringe, sorry) with Windex Multi-Task and waited. They had some difficulty wading, but otherwise continued. Tried Niagara Spray Starch in desperation.

By Sunday evening, there were probably a hundred ants, many of them Very Clean and/or with Rigid Posture, but otherwise quite healthy-appearing. They were starting to explore the world outside the bathroom. It...er....bugged me (re-cringe) too much to let it ride until Monday morning.

So after a complete waste-of-time Colts game, at nearly midnight, I braved the cold to tackle the 24-hour Kroger on a quest for Insect Toxicity. Found a selection of sprays; chose the least expensive, least obnoxious sounding scented one (yes, bug spray now comes Perfumed To Be Mistaken For Air Freshener) and headed for home.

Applied the spray most thoroughly to the floor and lower four inches or so of the walls of my small bathroom, turned the fan on, and closed the door, lest I take myself or either of the cats out with the ants. Tiptoed in one last time, about an hour later, for the pre-bed rituals, saw a few ants still moving, zotted them again.

Closed door, went off to sleep.

Arose on Monday morning and betook myself to the bathroom.

Wow.

A floor dotted with corpses of small ants. Nothing moving at all.

Wait: three ants, in the small area between the heat vent and the wall. Had the poison not worked? No, these were explorers from the home colony, looking to see what had happened to the battalion they'd sent forth the evening before, who had not returned home.

And all I could see was their horror at the devastation: the death and toxicity they saw around them; the shudders I surely imagined---for they were too small for me to see such movement, even in the unlikely case that ants can shudder.

And then they betook themselves back down the heat vent, quite possibly fatally poisoned themselves, to report back to the home colony and die.

A necessary victory over nature inside the house, but one I find I'm not terribly proud of......