Marching One By One

I came home yesterday planning to shower before taking Zirpu out to The A Street Cafe for dinner, and found some ants in the bathroom. There were a few more than usual so I followed their path and they were coming out of the molding (not mold) behind the toilet. Zirpu is trying to train me away from Raid and toward vinegar, so I went to the kitchen to get one or the other and saw ants all over the sink.


I hate ants! I lived in an apartment that had cockroaches for awhile, and while I had to scream bloody murder to kill them, they don't bother me nearly as much as a mass of ants. This is why: I fell ants crawling on my body for half an hour after dealing with them. Of course, they aren't - usually, but it's the usually that gets me, because now and then I'll feel a tickle on my arm, or my hand, or my ankle, and there's an ant!


I decided to give up on killing them in the moment, because there were too many of them to make short work of it. I started to open the door to the shower and there was a whole column of the creatures climbing up the wall and across the top bar of the shower. Well, screw that - I retreated to the other bathroom, to shower in the tub which we have rarely used since moving in.


Zirpu had taken off the shower head a few months ago hoping to solve the drip in the real shower, but I just showered under the narrow stream shooting out of the pipe sticking out of the wall. Not showering wasn't an option - I'd gotten overheated at work carrying boxes around, and then I went to the gym on the way home. I may have well have sponge-bathed.


My nefarious plan was to have Zirpu deal with the ants when we returned from dinner, which he did. A great number of the bathroom ants had retreated, though it seemed like there were more in the kitchen. Zirpu went to it with the spray bottle of vinegar. It's a good thing we both like the smell of pickles!


I don't live with someone who hates ants and who hates killing bugs; Zirpu does. My husband, my hero.