Ants (and Other Monstrosities)

For the past year or so we've been dealing with a puzzling problem. We'd run across a stray giant ant here and there. Mostly in the pantry and the adjoining hallway. It was strange because we were told by several people in our church that they'd never seen such ants here in Puebla and certainly did not have them in their houses. Months and months went on with us finding a stray ant here, a stray and there. Everyone knew not to leave their bedrooms in the middle of the night without shoes on. 

One day I got inspired to take out every last item out of the pantry, wash the shelves, and re-organize everything in it. It was a huge task and took two days to finish. After getting everything out, I started wiping each shelf down. I got to the very top one and saw a crack in the wall and a couple of huuuuuge ants running around up there. I believe the words that came out of my mouth next were a very high-pitched, "OOOOOOOOOOOOH GIIIIIIRLLLLLLLLLLL YOU BETTER GET IN HERE NOWWWWWWWW, I THINK I JUST FOUND THE ANT NEST" to Nicole in the other room. 

The shelves were so deep, I couldn't reach my arm all the way back there. Instead, I armed myself with a wire hanger, a fly swatter, and bug spray. I poked the unraveled hanger into the crack in the corner and a whole crowd of ants came running towards me.

There is a window that connects the pantry and the laundry room. I was on one side and Nicole was on the other. The ants started pouringggg out of either side - we were spraying and slapping at them like wild people. IT WAS VERY EXCITING.

By the time it was over, we had a whole pile of ant-trophies, including several that looked like the queen ants, obese and with wings.

(This isn't one of the queen ants, sorry)

I am extremely happy to report that since then, we have not ran across even one more jumbo-sized ant! And this would have been the end of the post, and I would've been so happy to say that we can now run freely out of our rooms into the hall at 3 am with no socks or shoes. Actually, we have been...until about a week ago - I got the fear of God put back in me. I got a phone call at a very uncouth hour of the night. I was forced to get out of bed and see about a certain situation. I was walking up and down the hall, in the dark...and barefoot...

I got off the phone, and decided to get a drink of water. I flipped on the hall light and to my horror, saw this on the wall.

If you can't tell....IT WAS HUGE. AND FAT. 

If I wouldn't have already had my phone in my hand, there would be no evidence of this monster. 

I grabbed the biggest boot I had, reared back, and with a scream of terror that comes with killing a small animal, I smashed it into the wall. It exploded with brown, red, and yellow stuff.
Click to zoom.

It curled up into this fetal position of "poor little ole me". What a crock!! 

I managed to do all of this without waking anyone up. I went back to my room, checked beneath my sheets, then crawled back into bed for the night.

Late night calls aren't so bad, after all.

~Bethany~