Ants in my pants

I am a big dreamer when I’m awake and I dream even bigger when I’m asleep. My dreams range from the sublime to the ridiculous and just about everything inbetween. They are always vivid, complicated and have plots thicker than lumpy custard. In fact my dreams keep me so busy when I’m asleep that it’s no wonder I wake up feeling exhausted!

Larva nightmare

Last night, was a corker. I dreamt that the carpet and walls of our now not so new home were covered in insect eggs. Like yellow larva! First off, my subconsciousness reassured my sleeping self that I was dreaming, but as the larva continued to spread, and take over my humble abode, even David, my mum and various pest controllers had to admit it was for real. My teeth grinding was going into overdrive. Insects are my nemesis!

So you can imagine, my sheer relief when I woke up to find my bedroom larva free! Although, I did go and closely inspect the wall and the carpets… just to be sure!

I cannot interpret dreams per se but I’m pretty sure that the larva nightmare is linked to our ongoing ant invasion. It seems our  bathroom is a kind of ant hotel. No matter what we do to them and how unwelcoming we are, they keep on coming. I know they are small, hard working and harmless but they are uninvited and unwanted. They don’t pay the mortgage, clean the toilet or take the garbage out, and until they do, they are not welcome!

We’ve tried everything. First off, we got in the big guns with the bug man and his industrial spray. Those ants must be a super breed because all those toxins didn’t phase them one bit. We then tried almost every ant ridding product on the market from sprays to traps and pretty much everything inbetween and still the ants marched on harder and further. The final straw came when I saw one boldly going where none had ever gone before… into my underwear drawer. Ants in my pants? No thanks!

After consulting with friends, family and even the former resident, we decided to go herbal on our little flant-mates. Apparently they aren’t big fans of strong smells so we have decided to scent them away. These days our bath has more bay leaves than ants, it seems ants hate bay leaves as much as I hate ants. We decided to go for the double whammy and invested in a lovely oil burner and some organic lavender oil. It turns out they hate lavender, too. I figure the advantages of the lavender is two fold, the ants get sent away and we get sent to sleep.

Lavender - universally hated by ants

So far, so good. Some of those super-ants are still making a break for freedom and marching with wild abandon around the bathroom but the tiles are black marble so I can’t really see them. And what my eyes doesn’t see, my heart won’t grieve over. Best of all, there’s no larva in sight!

Life’s too short to worry about the little things, is it not?

What’s your nemesis? Can you share any ant-ridding tips? 

photo credit BinaryApe via photopin cc