Flying Ant Day

We first moved into this house the week before Country Jam. And just days after moving in I noticed our first swarm of flying ants.

Every year since then, when it's Country Jam weekend, I can be assured that I'll have a kitchen full of half-dead winged ants, that I'll see them crawling all over the porch, that my cat will be going mad trying to kill them all.

It's really gross. And creepy. It always makes my skin crawl for a few days after. The best thing I've found is to vacuum them. They have wings, but they don't usually manage to fly. They crawl over the floor, on the window sills, the kitchen table if they can get to it.

I'm pretty sure they're just-hatched queen ants, flying off on their journey to try to be mated and start a new colony. Only they're hatching from somewhere in the foundation of our house, and they don't manage to get out. We have a serious ant problem outside, hills everywhere in the lawn and garden. It's rare that we get ants indoors though, except for this one phenomenon each year when they swarm.

Anyway, I'm off to vacuum ants. Because, you know, I don't have anything better to do with my time.