ASK CHERI S HILL

I went on vacation and when I came back, my entire back yard had become a red ant (fire ants) hill. Now how I know this is because my daughter Sierra sat down on the lawn and got bit at least 50 times…Ouch! At first, we were in a panic and then as I looked on the internet I found some wonderful information about the progression of the bites and what we could do to inhibit the itching, pain and possibility of an infection (if she scratched them!) and also what we could do organically or with chemicals to get rid of these nasty little pests.

Now mind you, I try to never kill any bugs. I catch spiders in a cup and put them outside. I don’t feel like I have the right to end a bugs life if it should wander into mine. However, I make an exception to Ants.

I grew up with Ants…millions of them. My brother and I would wait until the other one got home from school first just to see who had to deal with the ants. Giant black trails leading from the ground to the kitchen. One time, I woke up and my entire bedroom wall was covered with ants…CREEPY. When I was in Belize there are millions of ant trails, perfectly carved roadways throughout the entire jungle all leading to ant hills the size of Mt. Rose with a perfect line of ants going in both directions. The line heading into the hill had leaves, dead creatures and whatever else they needed on their little heads. This was an amazing site (and don’t get me started on all my jungle spider stories!)

So realty is this. I have fought and fought and fought the ant population my entire life and frankly, there is just no win. I can’t stand to use chemicals, especially Raid and stomping around the garage smooshing them to death doesn’t seem very nice.

I have resigned myself to the fact that the ants go marching on, and as long as they stay outside of my house I will allow them to live (the exception of course, is red ants that bite!) too close to home.

I always try and remember that they are one of God’s creatures designed to do a job on earth.