Ants bite!

There is an unusually large population of ants living at Baxter. They are truly fascinating creatures, but they are viscous. I would rather cross paths with a wild iguana (which I did!) than be close to a colony of ants. I could make a list of all the different types as long as Bubba’s ways to cook shrimp in Forrest Gump: big red ants, small red ants, big black ants, small black ants (believe it or not, these are the worst), pincher ants, un-proportionally large-headed ants, spider ants, mac daddy king ants with wings (these ants come out and colonize in large puddles of water after the rain, and they are huge!), the list goes on. There are two steps I often travel that are covered with small black ants. Back in my younger, dumber days, earlier in the summer, I stopped to watch them work…it was cool…for about a minute. Then I felt a ton of pinches on my feet, like shots, and I look down to see tons of little ants covering my feet and my flip flops. Needless to say, I don’t stop on those stairs anymore, in fact, I do my best to kill a few of those ants when I pass by. If you have never experienced an ant attack, allow me to give you the virtual experience. First, you feel pinches, which seem like nothing. You look down and see tiny black specks swarming your feet, and then, the bites start to sting. If you are smart, you run away, and then brush off the ants that are on your feet. If you are stupid, you try to brush them off where you are standing. Don’t ever do that, you just wind up with more ants. After you successfully flee the massacre, and the stinging pain is gone, the bites itch. Sunday, on my way to church, I walked across the basketball court and saw a dead snake COILED under one of the goals. The ants were already going to work. When I crossed the court again, going back to my apartment two hours later, the ants had uncoiled the snake, as seen in the photo. I wish I could have taken a closer picture, but I wasn’t going to subject myself to more ant bites. So the real reason I am ranting about ants, is to explain why we haven’t had internet at Baxter for the past five days. There was an ant nest near the amplifier where the signal comes from, and the ants ate through the cables and shorted it out! I bet that never happens in the States! ANTS BITE!