Ants and Roaches

We have had some interesting bug times lately. Mr. Austin finally got his ants in the mail that we ordered right after Christmas. They are for his ant farm that they got for Christmas. Well....boy was that an experience. They arrived on a very warm day. I did not realize that the mailman would just put them in our box. I figured he would bring them to our door. Well by the time I got the mail in the afternoon....if was pretty warm. Austin and I opened the envelope to find a a clear plastic tube with very busy fast crawling HUGE ants. These are some of the biggest ants I have ever seen. The are apparently called Harvester ants. The are maybe slightly smaller than bull ants! They are so big. In capital letters right on the tube is a label that reads WARNING ANTS CAN STING. I'm thinking great. The ants have been shipped and shook around. They sat in the mailbox and cooked in the sun. I'm sure the ants are good and angry! Now I have to figure out how to get them into the ant farm. The directions that came with the ants says to put them in the refrigerator for about fifteen minutes so they will get sleepy. Then you are supposed to be able to just gently shake the tube into the farm. Sounds easy enough. Not quite!! The minute I take the tube out of the fridge....they start waking up. I got maybe one or two in the farm. Some fell on the counter....some began crawling out. I'm starting to freak out...which results in Austin then freaking out. Wes....well he just thinks the ants are awesome. He's never been stung. He has no clue this could happen. So I grab the only thing on the counter, which happens to be a pizza cutter.....and I start using the side to gently, but quickly slide the ants into a plastic food storage container. Then I put the ants back in the fridge and decided they needed to chill a bit longer. This goes on for at least two more tries before I managed to get most of the ants into the farm. I ended up getting the clever idea of using a funnel to try and transfer the ants into the farm. I ended up having to sprinkle sugar on the ants to get them to slide through without them being able to crawl out. I still had to have Eric put like the last couple of ants in when he got home from work because I had reached my ant threshold. Of course when Eric does it, he makes it look so easy. I'd like to think that it was extra easy because the ants sat a bit longer in the fridge so they were good and sleepy when he moved them into the farm. So now Austin has his ant farm ready to go! Hopefully we have no escape artists....or who knows what I'll do!!

To add to this trying day...we decided to try out a Chinese buffet restaurant that I heard good things about at work. Well....unfortunately, Google maps had the directions completely wrong. Yes, Google maps does give out bad directions sometimes! So by the time we realized that we would have had to drive another twenty minutes to get to the place. So....we decided to try another place we found while we were searching for the other place. I had a bad vibe about the place from the get go. I even made Eric go look first to see if he thought it looked good and/or clean. He said he didn't have any idea. So we decided what the heck. We'll give it a go. There were a few people in there. Well they had one side room in the restaurant that was a bit dark...and they had a tv on....and of course it has cartoons on....and so of course Austin immediately asks if we can sit in that area. So we figured it would be okay. We all sat down and got through one plate of buffet food. Which wasn't horrible. It wasn't the best, but it was okay. Definitely I have had worse at other places. Well Wes decided to crawl under the table...because well that is Wes and that's what he does....he's got to be in constant motion....be it climbing, jumping, crawling, squealing. He's got to stay busy. Well......he must of scared a roach that was hiding under our table because it came crawling up the wall right next to where I was sitting. Well that was it for me. Eric and I took one look at each other and we both said ....okay.....I'm done. Once you see a roach while you're trying to eat....that pretty much taints the desire to get any more food from the buffet! Kind of ironic on the very day I had to deal with the ants...then I have to face a roach at dinner. Eric and I were still hungry.....so of course we made a stop at Taco Bell for a taco and a burrito to finish off our dinner and a kids meal for Austin and Wes. I think it was a sign from God that we were not supposed to eat out that night. We were supposed to behave and stay home and cook food like responsible parents! Oh well. At least it made for a good blog topic! Here is what I did learn: If the restaurant is dark.....run.....leave......don't eat there!! Who knows what kind of critters the restaurant may have lurking about! :P