By Jan Stadtherr
Remember the children’s song, “The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah?”
How about “The itsy, bitsy spider walked up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out?” And then there is the first song you learn on the piano – “Three Blind Mice.”
These are all cute songs about God’s critters, and, yes, their ancestors were here first. But I don’t consider them cute when they invade my home! Critters have been a topic of several columns. It seems there are more critters in our home and property than ever before.
We retired to our lake home 13 years ago and our home has never been besieged by small black ants as this summer. War was declared when they made their home in my box of Honey Nut Cheerios, one of my favorite breakfast foods.
Returning home from a weekend trip, I reopened the box of cereal for breakfast the following morning. Peering inside before pouring them into the bowl, the heart-shaped oats were moving. I gasped and uttered a bad word as hundreds, maybe thousands, of ants had made their home in MY cereal! A few started to crawl out of the box and I quickly brushed them into the sink and washed them down the drain with hot water. How dare they invade my kitchen, my natural habitat! With no way to remove them from the sweetness, I closed the box and brought it to the garbage can outside. With the cost of the cereal today, I was irate that I had to dispose of my favorite cereal!
Searching under the kitchen sink, I found two small bottles of Terro ant bait. They were nearly dried up, but after running hot water over them, I was able to put drops of the sweetened liquid inside and outside of the pantry. I knew it would take awhile for the little titans to disappear, but they were always slurping the liquid bait and were no longer seen . . . “and they all went marching down in the ground to get out of the rain, boom, boom, boom.”
Compared to living in a small town most of my life, I discovered there are more spiders living amongst us at the lake. Why? These eight-legged critters are attracted to water as lakes provide an ample source of food with a menu of mosquitos and other flying insects that like still water. But spiders belong outside, not in the house. I could sweep cobwebs off the house, deck, dock and pontoon all day long and they’re back the next day. Spiders like to be cool so I’m assuming they like the cool confines of our home. This has been a rainy summer that is ideal for spiders. If spotted inside, their life is ended.
During last winter, we had a family (or families) of mice move into the house. My husband discovered they were entering from behind the electrical meter socket in the laundry room. We bought more mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter. They were placed in several rooms. During the night I would be woken with the traps snapping. I just smiled, fluffed up my pillow, and went back to sleep.
But we were mystified when a mouse was found dead on top of the covered waste basket in the laundry room this summer. How did it die? Perhaps it preferred the air conditioning inside to escape the high temps and rain outside. We now have a baited trap in the laundry room year around.
Yes, all God’s creatures have a place in the choir, which is outside where they belong, not in my home! Keep those critters in check!
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