Friday afternoon arrived and I journeyed home from the hospital. Dr. Ani and Dr. Patt were in the operating room working on a posterior spine fusion. Dr. Josef was finishing up finding implants for tomorrow. Jen was at home finalizing work for operationsoap.org and we were all anticipating a night out to celebrate the end of week two.
Feeling industrious, after a snack, I walked to a corner of the room to sort through some medical supplies. Upon lifting one of the bags, I saw two or three ants scamper away. Looking around, I saw no others, and went back to the medical supplies. Moving the next box, I saw a single file row of ants marching along the corner. Frustrated to see these bugs, I went to ask Jen if we had any spray. She has a strong distaste for ants and followed me back to the corner of the room. To our horror, now there was a row five wide of ants streaming along the corner of the wall towards the kitchen. We followed the column of critters to the kitchen and as we rounded the corner discovered 20 to 25 rows of innumerable ants streaming through the kitchen and laundry room area. There had been none there approximately 15 minutes before. With a cry of alarm we began to battle the invading horde.
Luckily, the floors are all cement and we filled buckets of water to create a miniature Amazon river running through the house. Using squeegees – that we first had to wash off for piles of ants – we were able to direct the waters and the now swimming battalions of bugs towards the outside doors. Reaching the front door with a wave of these creatures, we realized the front porch was covered in rows and rows of more ants.
Our home was unfortunately on the path of a crossing colony of “siafu” – or army ants!
Jen sent out a all call to local friends. I notified Dr. Josef who took a tuk tuk to the nearby grocery store for some sprays.
Meanwhile, we battled the increasing swarm with buckets of water, and lined off the bedrooms with hand sanitizer, hoping to divert the onslaught!
Luckily, many gallons of water poured through the house seem to do the trick. Tahir, one of the local residents, gave some advice on some local bug spray which Josef was able to find. The battle for B2 slowly turned in our favor, at least on the indoors!
Looking outside, we were astounded to see rows of ants, marching in circular fashion around the home and streaming across the dirt driveway. Fortunately, at this point, our defensive work seem to create a barrier, and they gradually moved along until the migrating colony was past!
We stowed our weapons, congratulated our efforts, and sauntered away from the battlefield to a well-deserved celebratory dinner.
Talk about an adventure! My pictures are late in the battle – I wish I had some from indoors but self-defense took priority over documentation.