Going into Combat

So it's a tiny war, but war is war and someone has to die. 

I have tried to understand the ant life's habits, if you can call it a life.

I see that ants are good for cleaning up dead things when I see them swarming around a "dead thing."

I have been observing them, much like an anthropologist; except, I haven't been to their colony.

But once I am dead, I am sure they will find a way to get me there.  

I don't mind seeing them around the perimeter of the yard, but I draw their last scented path when they come 

through the drain pipes and under the floor boards. 

I wonder if the ants get their tracking skills from the Indians since they, also, send out scouts. 

Obviously they didn't, since the Indians scout for danger and the ants follow the same scented trail as the first dead ant.

They are expendable, on a suicide mission, unbeknownst to them.

Didn't their mother tell them that when they find a dead relative on the path, it's a warning: Danger in the area? 

How can ants survive through evolution if they haven't learned a thing from their ancestors?

Or maybe, they don't have ancestors. They are all reincarnated humans. 

I generally kill the scout, first, and erase the scented path, knowing that if I don't; another ant who never learned his

lesson, from his previous life, will be coming along any minute.

I can see the ant's tiny brain at work when they come across a dead ant or sense danger.

They start running in different directions; hesitating, retreating every second. 

Probably screaming, " Get Off the trail... get Off the trail.. get Off the trail...

I'm off the trail...

I'm safe..I'm safe...Yippee! 

Splat! 

My husband has vacuumed them up, but that didn't last long.

I have tried using deterrents such as cinnamon, flour, pepper, soap, citrus oils to get rid of ants. 

Unfortunately, these organic substances create a lasting mess until I clean them up.

That's another good thing about ants. I tend to clean more, in places that I

didn't know were places. 

I ,also, start to scout, looking for the path of invasion along the perimeter of my house. 

I usual find some paths and put out Grant stakes. 

Grant stakes placed in the house, tend to freak out people, because it "attracts" ants. 

The flavored arsenic in the stakes brings out the entire colony to feast. So don't be

surprised if your one ant turns into a few hundred ants in minutes. The arsenic doesn't kill 

the ant immediately and gives the ant time to travel back to the colony to spread the poison.

The next day all the ants are gone and so is that 'one' colony among the hundreds 

of colonies around my house.

Every time I pick up a Grant stake or spray poison around an area, I can feel the poison 

contaminating my own body too; if not then, later, because it lingers.

We once had an exterminator, but I was tired of saturating the yard with poisons. The other day,

I saw our neighbor's exterminator spraying their yard when the dogs were outside. I saw the fine

mist of poison balloon into a large cloud in the air and I thought, "We are all going to die."

In the end, I think the ant will out live us all. Maybe, they are reincarnations of us and that is why they still

exist because I have yet to see any evolutionary improvement in their survival skills.

And then again, they are not smart enough to create poisons or weapons of mass destruction, to kill themselves, like we are.