ANTS

After the last ant infestation in my bedroom curtains, I hadn’t thought of the possibility of another attempt by the colony to re-establish their residency in my home. Evidently my ignorance was just the opportunity they needed to rebuild their nest, this time in a place even less likely than my curtains. I was rushing out the door to play Thai pick-up basketball (which is arguably stranger than massive amounts of ants) when I noticed an ant highway crawling up my shoe rack. (Note: Since shoes are not worn indoors in Thailand, one of the four pieces of handmade furniture I have is a shoe rack that looks more like a nightstand.)

I kept some food on top of the rack so I immediately assumed they were after a bottle of coke or, perhaps, Grandma’s cookies (sent straight from Higgins Lake in ten days. Thank you Grandma!). I followed the trail to one of my shoes and I assumed something must be behind them. I pulled them out from the rack and in an instant, I had dozens of ants crawling up my arms. I instinctively shook them off and then, with a finger in each shoe, I pulled them off the rack and onto the floor. The short drop was enough to disrupt the entire colony. Ants flew from my shoes. They were the same kind of ant that had built a home in my curtains; tiny little bastards that run quickly, especially when they’re party’s been crashed. There were so many of them, my shoes looked black instead of brown and I was expecting the ants to congregate under the sole, lift up the shoe, and run away with it. Though certainly organized, I guess the mass ant pick-up-and-run trick is only for picnics in cartoons.

I threw the shoes outside then began to sweep the evacuees off my doorstep. After giving the ants a chance to exit on their own accord, I then took to slamming the shoes on the concrete. A third of the ants fell out, a third stayed where they were, and the other third crawled up my wrist. Unsure what to do, I left the shoes outside and went off to play some ball.

When I returned home later that night, my shoes still laid outside my door, empty save a few renegades still hanging out. Since I don’t own another pair of shoes for school, and there’s certainly no store to buy shoes in town (the Thursday market would by best bet locally) I left them outside in hope of a full evacuation. The next morning, my shoes were empty, ant-free, seemed to have had no damage, so I wore them to school. The ants have been a surprise twice now, and I can’t help but assume they’ll be back.